Sera from sheep and other domestic animals contain a substance that gives a strongly positive test for antibody to hepatitis B virus surface antigen by the accepted radioimmunoassay procedure. We have purified this substance from sheep serum to near homogeneity by ion-exchange, affinity, and molecular exclusion chromatography and have identified it to be an IgM. We present evidence that this sh...

Introduction: Hepatitis B is a disease caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV), which is transmitted through percutaneous (i.e., puncture through the skin) or mucosal (i.e., direct contact with mucous membranes) exposure to infectious blood or body fluids. HBV can cause chronic infection, resulting in cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer, liver failure, and death. Persons with chronic infection a...

Hepatitis B vaccine has been available worldwide since the mid-1980s. This vaccine was evaluated in a clinical trial in Thailand, conducted on subjects born to hepatitis B surface antigen positive and hepatitis B e-antigen positive mothers and vaccinated according to a 4-dose schedule at 0, 1, 2 and 12 mo of age and a single dose of hepatitis B immunoglobulin concomitantly at birth. All enrolle...

1Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Ankara, Turkey (Correspondence to R. Güven: [email protected]). 2Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. Received: 17/02/04; accepted: 11/04/05 ABSTRACT Turkey is an intermediate endemic area for hepatitis B virus infection. The study investigated the hepatitis B exposure risk and prevalence of hepatitis B...

     Thimerosal, which is approximately 50% mercury by weight is a preservative widely used in vaccines since the 1930’s. It meets the requirements for a preservative as set forth by Pharmacopeia challenge test and has been shown to be effective against a broad spectrum of pathogens. In July 1999, the Public Health Service agencies and vaccine manufacturers agreed that thimerosal should be redu...

Repeated administration of an intravenous immunoglobulin containing antibody to hepatitis B e antigen (anti-HBe) and antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) but free of antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) before and after the inoculation of 10(4.9) 50% chimpanzee infective doses of hepatitis B virus (HBV) markedly prolonged the incubation period of HBV in experimentally i...

Background and aims: Hepatitis B vaccination is the most successful way to prevent the virus infection. Serum concentration of vitamin D has recently been proposed as a novel predictor of response to antiviral treatment in chronic hepatitis infection. The main target of this paper was to review the recent knowledge regarding the association between obesity and vitamin D level and immune respons...

Background and Aims: Hepatitis D virus (HDV) can infect human population either as a superinfection or concurrent hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. It is expected that presence of HDV infection is more prevalent in endemic HBV areas. Overall 5% of Iranian general populations are chronic HBV carriers. The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of HDV and its clinical impact in ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS To investigate serological patterns of hepatitis B based on electrochemiluminescent immunoassays and the distribution characteristics of these patterns in hospitalized children and adolescents in Zhejiang, China between 2006 and 2010. METHODS Five serological markers, including hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg), antibody to hepatitis B surface ...

background: conventional hepatitis b virus (hbv) vaccination fails to achieve efficient protection in about 5–10% of the world population. hence, different strategies have been adopted to ameliorate hbv antibody titers. this study aimed to evaluate the concurrent application of tetanus‑diphtheria (td) and hbv vaccination on hepatitis b surface (hbs) antibody titer in low‑responder healthy indiv...