We conducted a multi-stage household cluster survey to calculate hepatitis B vaccine coverage among children 18-30 months of age in 27 Brazilian cities. Hepatitis B vaccine is administered at birth, 1 month and 6 months of age by Brazil's national immunization program. Among 17,749 children surveyed, 40.2% received a birth dose within one day of birth, 94.8% received at least one dose of hepati...

The woodchuck hepatitis virus is a naturally occurring hepatitis B-like virus that infects the eastern woodchuck. Direct immunofluorescence staining for woodchuck hepatitis virus core antigen in liver biopsies demonstrated the presence of this antigen in 14 of 17 chronically infected woodchucks, and in 8 of 10 woodchucks undergoing acute infections. Fluorescent localization of woodchuck hepatit...

Hepatic viscerotomy of paraffin-preserved old specimens, collected in the period from 1934 to 1967, were analyzed by immunohistochemical assays to detect hepatitis B, hepatitis D, dengue and yellow fever virus antigens. The material belongs to the Yellow Fever Collection, Department of Pathology, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the cases were diagnosed at that time according ...

The serology of chronic hepatitis B infection has been established through the use of commercial immunoassays to measure the structural antigens of the hepatitis B virus and their respective antibodies in serum. However, the commercial assays have not been designed to detect serum antibodies in the presence of an excess of circulating antigens. A series of serum samples from 200 HBeAg-positive,...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Impaired T-cell reactivity is believed to be the dominant cause of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. We characterized HBV-specific T-cell responses in chronic hepatitis B surface antigen carriers who received bone marrow from HLA-identical donors with natural immunity to HBV and seroconverted to antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen. METHODS T-cell reactivity to H...

Two antigenic systems of the woodchuck hepatitis virus have been identified. The relationship between viral antigens of the woodchuck hepatitis virus and the human hepatitis B virus was determined by using immunoprecipitation, hemagglutination, and immune electron microscopy techniques. Antigens found on the cores of the two viruses were cross-reactive. Lack of cross-reactivity between the surf...

conclusions these results exhibited the immuno potentiator effects of mip-3beta plasmid when coadministrated with the hcv core dna vaccine. complimentary studies integrating mip-3beta as a genetic adjuvant in hcv-core-dna vaccination models are warranted. results mice covaccinated with mip-3beta elicited an enhanced th1 biased systemic immune response as evidenced by higher ifn-γ/il-4 and anti-...

The purpose of the present study was to measure the amount of antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) in different populations by the immunoelectroosmophoresis method. High titers of anti-HBc, up to 1/4,096, were found in the acute stage of hepatitis B virus infections and in the chronic carrier state of hepatitis B surface antigen. In cases of acute hepatitis the anti-HBc titers gradua...

New information has prompted revision of the conceptual framework for considering the epidemiology and virology of viral hepatitis. The means are now at hand to identify infections due to either Hepatitis A or B, as well as to implicate other etiologic agents in hepatitis. Immunologic evidence of variation in the antigens associated with Hepatitis B, and possibly in Hepatitis A, may explain som...