Correlation of improved hepatitis B surface antigen detection limits with hepatitis B virus DNA nucleic acid test yield in blood donations.

Background: This study provides data on the quantitative relationship between hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg; ng/mL) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) nucleic acid test (NAT; copies/mL) and addresses whether HBsAg assays with improved sensitivity would impact the detection of HBV-positive samples from occult or early seroconversion window period infections.

Study Design And Methods: Plasma samples were tested with an HBsAg assay (PRISM, Abbott Laboratories; sensitivity, 0.08-0.

Identification of the first strain of swine hepatitis E virus in South America and prevalence of anti-HEV antibodies in swine in Argentina.

In Argentina, a country considered non-endemic for hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection, serologic evidence of HEV infection has been observed in different human population groups. In other countries, a high degree of genetic relatedness has been observed between human and swine HEV genotype 3 sequences, suggesting zoonosis as one probable route of infection. This is the first identification of swine HEV in South America.

Hepatitis E and its emergence in non-endemic areas.

In areas with a tropical or subtropical climate and poor sanitary conditions, hepatitis E is the major cause of enterically transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis, and is responsible for both waterborne outbreaks of variable magnitude and sporadic cases of acute hepatitis. The causative agent is the hepatitis E virus (HEV), a non-enveloped, single-stranded, positive-sense RNA molecule of approximately 7.2 kb in length.

Identification of a novel variant of hepatitis E virus in Austria: sequence, phylogenetic and serological analysis.

We isolated a novel hepatitis E virus (HEV-Au1) variant from a patient in Austria suffering from acute viral hepatitis, who had no known risk factors for acquiring hepatitis E. The clinical presentation and initial serological findings have been reported previously. In this paper we report the results of sequence and phylogenetic analysis of HEV products from viral RNA isolated from acute phase serum.