Hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection constitutes a major public health problem in Brazil. The transmission of HAV is primarily by fecal-oral route so the water is an important vehicle of HAV dissemination. There is a great incidence of acute cases of hepatitis A in some areas of Brazil however the seasonal variation of these cases was not documented. The aim of this study was to determine the seas...

To investigate hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection rates among isolated African-descendant communities in Central Brazil, 947 subjects were interviewed about demographic characteristics in all 12 isolated Afro-descendant communities existing in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Central Brazil, between March 2002 and November 2003. Blood samples were collected and sera were tested for HAV antibodie...

conclusions the apri had the highest sensitivity and specificity (64% and 71%, respectively) for prediction of the presence of liver disease. we suggest that apri may be applicable for the detection of a severe liver disease. objectives in this study, we evaluated and compared several available indices of the severity of liver diseases in patients with hepatitis. patients and methods exclusion ...

results 12 (14.8%) patients had positive results for both hdv rna and anti-hdv. the mean alt level was higher in hdv positive patients (75.9 u/ml) than hbv-mono-infected individuals; however, the mean hbv viral load was lower in coinfected patients than hbv-mono-infected patients. phylogenetically, genotype i was the only detected genotype, and the most closely related isolates were of turkish,...

conclusions health care providers need to pay special attention to sexual transmission of hcv among hiv-infected individuals, and should recommend control/preventive measures for hcv sexual transmission. results age of the index samples was 38.71 ± 7 years, and 33.2 ± 6.3 for their main heterosexual partners; the mean duration of sexual relationship for couples was 11.9 (median = 8.5) years. mu...

background hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection is a major public health problem that affects billions of people worldwide. the lack of information on hbv prevalence among the general population is an obstacle to formulate effective policies to reduce the burden of viral hepatitis. objectives this population based serological survey was conducted in kermanshah province to determine the local preva...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the risk of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection among sewage workers from occupational exposure to raw sewage. METHODS An analytical cross sectional study of 241 company employees with possible occupational exposure to sewage in a large water and sewerage company was carried out. Previous exposure to hepatitis A virus infection was assessed, as were its associations with p...

Population-based seroprevalence studies provide important data on susceptible groups and the potential for future outbreaks. However, the invasive nature of serum collection has limited studies. This paper describes the first postal population-based survey using noninvasive oral fluid technology to collect antibody prevalence data in conjunction with extensive risk factor data to assess the dis...