Hepatitis A Infection in Chronic Carriers of Hepatitis B Virus

✍ Scribed by Reinhart Zachoval; Michael Roggendorf; Friedrich Deinhardt

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 441 KB
• Volume: 3
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0270-9139
• DOI: 10.1002/hep.1840030409

✦ Synopsis

By routine screening for serologic markers of hepatitis A and B in patients with acute hepatitis, 30 chronic carriers of hepatitis B virus with serologic evidence of acute hepatitis A and two patients with simultaneous acute infection with hepatitis A virus and hepatitis B virus were detected.

For evaluation of clinical data, two major risk groups were distinguished. Nine patients were drug addicts and 17 were children and young adults from Mediterranean countries or southeast Asia,

During the acute phase of illness, serum bilirubin and SGPT levels did not differ from those in other patients with acute hepatitis A. In three patients for whom follow-up sera were available, HBsAg concentration decreased during the acute stage of hepatitis A, Hepatitis A is a self-limited disease which does not become chronic; in contrast, acute hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in 5 to 10% of patients is prolonged and results in chronic carriers of HBV and chronic hepatitis. As hepatitis A virus (HAV) and HBV do not induce cross-immunity, sequential or simultaneous infection may occur; there is little information about the interference of these two viruses in v i m (1-4, Moser, M. R. et al., Lancet 1975; 2:705, Correspondence). Theoretically, a "double" infection may differ from infection with either virus alone. Due to the relatively low incidence of HAV and HBV in western European countries, simultaneous infection with both viruses is uncommon.

In routine diagnostic screening for markers of HAV and HBV, we detected 30 chronic HBV carriers with serological evidence of acute HAV infection, and two patients with acute simultaneous infection with HAV and HBV. We report clinical, serological, and epidemiological studies of these patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

SERA AND PATIENTS

Thirty-two patients with serological evidence of acute infection with HAV and acute or chronic HBV infection