Seroprevalence of hepatitis delta virus infection among subjects with underlying hepatic diseases in Chennai, southern India.
Four hundred million people are carriers of hepatitis B virus (HBV) worldwide and approximately 5% 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) (P=0.82) and chronic liver disease (P=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.
Indian Council of Medical Research Referral Centre for Chronic Hepatitis and Molecular Virology, Department of Microbiology, University of Madras, Chennai 600 113, India.
Shanmugam
S
Saravanan
Vijayakumar
V
Velu
Nagalingeswaran
N
Kumarasamy
Esaki Muthu
EM
Shankar
Subhadra
S
Nandakumar
Kailapuri Gangatharan
KG
Murugavel
Pachamuthu
P
Balakrishnan
Suniti
S
Solomon
Sadras Panchatcharam
SP
Thyagarajan
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003699:Hepatitis D / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003698:Hepatitis Delta Virus / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D035923:Hepatitis delta Antigens / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000097:blood / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D035923:Hepatitis delta Antigens; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D000410:Alanine Transaminase