Early identification of chronic hepatitis B is important for optimal disease management and prevention of transmission. Cost and lack of access to commercial hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) immunoassays can compromise the effectiveness of HBV screening in resource-limited settings and among marginalized populations. High-quality point-of-care (POC) testing may improve HBV diagnosis in these...

Anti-Hepatitis D Virus (HDV) among hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) positive subjects has been reported from various countries such as Romania (1), Russia (2), Bangladesh (3), Pakistan (4), Saudi Arabia (5), Italy (6), and Mexico (7) with a prevalence of 83.3%, 12.5%, 24.4%, 16.6%, 8.6%, 8.3%, and 4%, respectively. According to studies carried out in Iran, HDV does not have a similar p...

Genetic analysis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) frequently involves study of intra-host variants, identification of which is commonly achieved using short regions of the HBV genome. However, the use of short sequences significantly limits evaluation of genetic relatedness among HBV strains. Although analysis of HBV complete genomes using genetic cloning has been developed, its application is highly...

In a country with a high prevalence (16%) of chronic serum HBsAg carriers like Romania there is a special interest in the diagnosis, epidemiology, clinics, pathology and treatment of HBV infection The idea of HBV genotyping arose from the need of understanding the complex interactions between virus and host. The purpose of this article is to present a study which aimed to identify the circulati...

Sequence heterogeneity is a feature of hepatitis B virus (HBV), the prototype member of the family Hepadnaviridae. Based on an intergroup divergence of greater than 7.5% across the complete genome, HBV has been classified phylogenetically into 9 genotypes, A-I, with a putative 10th genotype 'J', isolated from a single individual. With between approximately 4 and 8% intergroup nucleotide diverge...

Mannose binding lectin (MBL) is a central component of the innate immune response and thus may be important for determining hepatitis B virus (HBV) persistence. Since single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the gene encoding MBL (mbl2) alter the level of functional MBL, we hypothesized that mbl2 genotypes are a determinant of HBV persistence or recovery from viral infection. We tested this hy...

BACKGROUND Predictors of response of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) to lamivudine therapy need better definition. Whether hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes could serve as such a predictor has not been well studied. AIM To study the association of HBV genotypes with the outcome of lamivudine treatment in patients with CHB. METHODS Seventy-six patients with CHB (45 HBeAg +ve) received lamivudine 1...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is an important health concern worldwide, with critical outcomes. Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) negative chronic hepatitis B is frequently caused by a mutation (G1896A) in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) precore (PC) reading frame, which creates a stop codon, causing premature termination of the HBe protein. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to investigate t...

CONTEXT In recent years the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotyping has been considered a relevant factor in the natural history of the disease. OBJECTIVE To determine hepatitis B virus genotypes and its epidemiological and clinical implications, in a cohort of patients in a hospital in Porto Alegre, South of Brazil. METHODS Sixty seven patients with HBV chronic infection markers who were being ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Hepatitis D virus (HDV) is a defective RNA virus dependent on hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection for its replication and expression. It is known that coexistent infection with HDV tends to aggravate the course of HBV-associated liver disease. This study was carried out to determine the seroprevalence of HDV among hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive individuals in ...