Hepatitis B virus DNA in sera of virus carriers positive exclusively for antibodies to the hepatitis B core antigen.
The prevalence of serum HBV DNA in individuals positive for anti-HBc alone was determined by the polymerase chain reaction in two groups with endemic HBV infection from Canton (group A) and Hainan (group B), provinces of China. Twenty-one out of 294 individuals in group A (7.2%) and 193 out of 1995 in group B (9.7%) were positive for anti-HBc but negative for other markers of ongoing or past HBV infection (HBsAg and anti-HBs). HBV DNA was detected in 6/21 sera in group A (28.6%) and 68/193 in group B (35.2%) in their initial serum specimen. One of the six HBV-DNA-positive individuals in group A became negative after 6 months and four of the 58 positive in group B became negative at 4 years of follow-up. All of the individuals remained positive for anti-HBc and negative for anti-HBs, but one of them became positive for HBsAg on follow-up. None of the anti-HBc- and HBV-DNA-positive subjects had symptoms of liver diseases. They were, therefore, defined as chronic asymptomatic HBV carriers with undetectable HBsAg. This type of carrier should be added to the typical HBsAg-positive carrier, who constitutes about 10-15% of the general Chinese population, to give a more complete estimate of asymptomatic HBV carriers in China.
Division of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, First Medical College of PLA, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
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Luo
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Zhou
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He
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Liang
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Jiang
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001483:Base Sequence; D002353:Carrier State / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
D004279:DNA, Viral; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies; D006512:Hepatitis B Core Antigens