Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
3420793 | Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene | 2008 | 4 Pages |
Abstract
Four hundred million people are carriers of hepatitis B virus (HBV) worldwide and â¼5% of these are reportedly positive for hepatitis delta virus (HDV). Several reports indicate a declining trend in the occurrence of HDV infection in the north of tropical India. To our knowledge, no study has been conducted to evaluate whether a similar epidemiological change is occurring in southern India. Therefore we evaluated the seroprevalence of HDV among 153 individuals with HBV-related liver diseases in Chennai, and assessed any change in epidemiological pattern by comparing the results with seroprevalence figures reported previously. Of the 153 patients screened, nine (5.9%) were reactive to anti-delta antibodies, six (3.9%) presented an evidence of past infection (IgG anti-delta positive) and three (2.0%) showed anti-HDV IgM, suggestive of recent HDV infection. Alanine transaminase elevation was not significant in HDV-associated infection compared with HBV alone-infected acute viral hepatitis (AVH) (PÂ =Â 0.82) and chronic liver disease (PÂ =Â 0.77) patients. The anti-HDV positivity in AVH was considerably low (6.6%), compared with previous Indian reports varying from 10.7% to >30%. HDV infection was relatively low and seems to play a minor determining factor of liver diseases in the tropical south Indian population.
Keywords
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Authors
Shanmugam Saravanan, Vijayakumar Velu, Nagalingeswaran Kumarasamy, Esaki Muthu Shankar, Subhadra Nandakumar, Kailapuri Gangatharan Murugavel, Pachamuthu Balakrishnan, Suniti Solomon, Sadras Panchatcharam Thyagarajan,