Infection with hepatitis A, B, C, and delta viruses among patients with acute hepatitis in Mongolia

✍ Scribed by Bira Tsatsralt-Od; Masaharu Takahashi; Kazunori Endo; Osorjin Buyankhuu; Oidov Baatarkhuu; Tsutomu Nishizawa; Hiroaki Okamoto

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 169 KB
• Volume: 78
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.20574

✦ Synopsis

One hundred ten consecutive patients (60 males and 50 females; age, mean AE standard deviation [SD], 22.6 AE 6.4 years; range 16-48 years) who were clinically diagnosed with sporadic acute hepatitis between December 2004 and January 2005 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, were studied. IgM antibodies to hepatitis A virus were detected in 18 patients (16.4%), IgM antibodies to hepatitis B core (anti-HBc IgM) in 38 patients (34.5%) including two patients with concurrent hepatitis delta virus (HDV) infection, and hepatitis C virus RNA in nine patients (8.2%). There were 30 hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers who had detectable hepatitis B surface antigen and antibodies to HDV but were negative for anti-HBc IgM, suggesting that they acquired type D acute hepatitis due to superinfection of HDV on a background of chronic HBV infection. None had IgM antibodies to hepatitis E virus (HEV). Consequently, 16.4, 32.7, 6.4, 1.8, and 27.3% of the patients were diagnosed as having acute hepatitis of type A, B, C, type B þ D (HBV/HDV coinfection), and type D (superinfection of HDV), respectively. The cause of hepatitis was not known in the remaining 17 patients (15.5%). All 18 HAV isolates were genotyped as IA, all 9 HCV isolates were genotyped as 1b, and all 32 HDV isolates were classified into genotype I. The distribution of HBV genotypes among the 67 HBV isolates was A (1.5%, n ¼ 1) and D (98.5%, n ¼ 66). The present study indicates that de novo infections of HAV, HBV, HCV, and HDV are prevalent among young adults in Mongolia.