The synthesis of 14S pentamers and 70S empty capsids of hepatitis A virus (HAV) has been accomplished by expressing the viral genome for periods of time longer than 4 h in Escherichia coli. HAV pentamers (14S) self-assembled into capsids (70S) in vitro. The antibodies induced by these structures recognized and neutralized HAV.

Infection with hepatitis A virus (HAV) occasionally leads to acute liver failure and has a higher fatality rate in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV). Vaccination of patients with HCV against HAV is effective and well tolerated. This study examines the cost-effectiveness of HAV vaccination in North American patients with chronic HCV. A decision analysis model was constructed to compa...

Although substance abuse treatment programs are important contact points for providing health services for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, availability of services in these programs has not been well characterized. This study evaluated the spectrum of HBV and HCV services offered by substance abuse treatment programs within the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clini...

results a total number of nine patients were registered. seven patients were male and two were female. the mean age was 30.11 ± 10.09.two patients were from the same family. all patients had typical symptoms of acute hepatitis a. none of the patients died nor did fulminant occur in any patients. in addition, all patients were treated with supportive treatment and subsequently recovered. patient...

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...

OBJECTIVES Data on high frequency of hepatitis A virus (HAV) antibodies for wastewater treatment staff is contradictory. Literature lacks data on the seroprevalence of antibodies to HAV (anti-HAV) among workers in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Bulgaria. The aim of this study is to establish a specific humoral immune response to hepatitis A virus - anti-HAV total antibodies among staff ...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis A virus (HAV) and Hepatitis E virus (HEV) are both enterically transmitted, resulting in acute viral hepatitis (AVH) in developing countries. They pose major health problems in our country. This study was done to determine prevalence of HAV and HEV in patients presenting with AVH and the co-infection of HAV and HEV in these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectiona...

Comparative surface feature analyses of the VP1 sequences of hepatitis A virus (HAV) and poliovirus type 1 allowed an alignment of the two sequences and an identification of probable HAV neutralization antigenic sites. A synthetic peptide containing the HAV-specific amino acid sequence of one of these sites induced anti-HAV-neutralizing antibodies. It is concluded that a structural homology exi...

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is naturally transmitted by the fecal-oral route but can also be transmitted intravenously. To determine the relative infectivity of these 2 routes, an infectivity titration of a standard challenge pool of virulent HAV was performed in tamarins and chimpanzees. In both species, 1 oral dose of HAV was equivalent to 10(4.5) intravenous doses. These findings have relevance ...

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) released from infected BS-C-1 cells was incompletely neutralized when incubated with a variety of convalescent sera (non-neutralizable fraction of 17 to 32%). Chloroform extraction of virus resulted in a substantial reduction of the non-neutralizable fraction (to less than 1%), suggesting that non-neutralizable virions might be associated with lipids. Non-neutralizable H...