BACKGROUND Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes have distinct geographical distributions and are associated with different clinical courses. HBV genotype G (HBV/G) is extremely rare among Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected populations in Japan. Genetic analysis and clinical course of recombinant forms with HBV/G infection are seldom reported in the literature. CASE PRESENTATION A 36-yea...

Serological markers are key elements in diagnosing acute hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and determining its possible evolution towards chronicity. Once treatment of chronic HBV is initiated with approved anti-hepadnaviral agents, such as lamivudine, interferon-alpha, or adefovir dipivoxil, the measurement of HBV DNA in serum can not only help monitor treatment efficacy but also indicates bre...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate, for the first time, the genotype of hepatitis B virus (HBV) among hepatitis patients in Eastern Azerbaijan Province, Northwest Iran. METHODS A total of 100 HBV-infected patients were enrolled in this study. Among these, 40 samples were positive for both HBsAg and HBeAg, whereas 60 samples were HBsAg positive and HBe Agnegative. Patients' se...

OBJECTIVE Current data on the prevalence of occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in HIV-positive individuals conflict. As occult HBV infection could have an impact on the outcome of liver disease in HIV-positive patients, we investigated a large number of HIV-positive/HBV-surface-antigen (HBsAg) negative subjects with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection by using the 'gold standard' approach f...

Although safe and effective vaccines for hepatitis B virus (HBV) have been available for nearly three decades, this virus kills at least 600,000 people annually worldwide and remains the leading global cause of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Because the HBV reverse transcriptase lacks a proofreading function, many HBV genotypes, subgenotypes, mutants, and recombinan...

Despite all blood donations being tested routinely for HBsAg as a clinical marker of transmissible HBV, cases post-transfusion hepatitis B virus infection are still reported because molecular studies using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) not available Transfusion Transmissible Infection (TTIs) testing. In this study, we sought to use the PCR technique re-screen donated that had already been pro...

Studies on the prevalence of infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) among children are scarce in Latin American countries, especially in Mexico. This study was aimed to investigate the prevalence of HBV infection, occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) and HBV genotypes among children with clinical hepatitis. In total, 215 children with clinical hepatitis were evaluated for HBV infection. HBV serol...

We compared a home-made sequencing system to analyze plasma samples from patients with chronic HBV infection with the commercial TRUGENE(®) HBV Genotyping Assay. A PCR and sequencing protocol based on published primers was applied to detect the viral genotypes as well as the major patterns of point mutations leading to resistance to lamivudine, adefovir and entecavir. For the determination of H...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the prevalence of occult hepatitis B viral infections (OBIs)  among blood donors considering the clinical and epidemiological importance of identifying OBIs. METHODS A cross-sectional study conducted at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between January 2011 and January 2012. Blood donors (n=8501) were screened for Hepatitis B virus surface antigen (H...

Today, chronic viral hepatitis is considered as a public health problem in the world. Totally, 5% of the world population, especially in Asia and Africa suffer from this problem. The prevalence of acute hepatitis in America is 0.1-0.2 percent, 50% of those with hepatitis C (HCV) and 5-10% of them with hepatitis B (HCV) develop chronic hepatitis. Determining HBV and HCV genotypes is important to...