BACKGROUND Guidelines suggest that all HBsAg-positive patients should be tested for anti-HDV IgG antibodies and to confirm active hepatitis D virus (HDV) infection by detection of HDV RNA by reverse transcriptase (RT) polymerase chain reaction (PCR). OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to determine the serological prevalence and molecular features of HDV within an Amerindian community from A...

BACKGROUND The epidemiology of hepatitis D virus (HDV) in China is fairly unknown. The mechanisms whereby HDV leads to accelerated liver disease in hepatitis B virus (HBV)/HDV co-infected patients and the histological characteristics of chronic hepatitis D (CHD) patients need further investigation. METHODS The prevalence of HDV was retrospectively evaluated in all consecutive hospitalized pat...

The major cause of liver cancer around the globe is hepatitis B virus (HBV), which also contributes to a large number of deaths due to liver failure alone. Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is as potentially alarming as HBV since life threatening cases are 10 times more likely with HBV-HDV dual infection compared to HBV monoinfection. So far, there is no established effective treatment against HDV an...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) infection results in the most aggressive form of chronic viral hepatitis. There is scarce information about the prevalence, epidemiology, virological profile and natural history of hepatitis delta in HIV patients. METHODS From 16,597 HIV patients enrolled in EuroSIDA, 1319 (7.9%) have ever reported serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBsAg)-po...

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 ...

Hepatitis delta antigen (HDAg) was first described by Rizzetto et aL. (1977). Hepatitis D virus (HDV), also known as the 'delta agent', is a satellite agent of hepatitis B virus (HBV). HDV does not synthezise its own coat; it is enveloped by hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), which occurs as large (L), middle (M) and smaII or major (S) surface proteins, differing in the length of the amino-te...

The human Hepatitis Delta Virus (HDV) is unique among all viral pathogens. Encoding only one protein (Hepatitis Delta Antigen; HDAg) within its viroid-like self-complementary RNA, HDV constitutes the smallest known virus in the animal kingdom. To disseminate in its host, HDV depends on a helper virus, the human Hepatitis B virus (HBV), which provides the envelope proteins required for HDV assem...

BACKGROUND The epidemiology and impact of hepatitis δ virus (HDV) on hepatic outcomes and virological and immunological responses to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients coinfected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) in northern Taiwan have been reported. However, the epidemiology and impact of HDV infection in HIV-HBV coinfection patients in sout...

Most RNA viruses encode their own RNA polymerases for genome replication, and increasing numbers of them appear to be capable of undergoing RNA recombination. Here, we provide the first report of intergenotypic recombination in hepatitis delta virus (HDV), the only animal RNA virus that requires host RNA polymerase(s) for viral replication. In vivo, we analyzed RNA species derived from the seru...