Recurrent isolation of poliovirus 3 strains with chimeric capsid protein Vp1 suggests a recombination hot-spot site in Vp1.

Five oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) strains carrying an intertypic PV3/PV2 recombination in VP1 capsid protein were isolated during poliovirus surveillance. These five PV3 strains had altogether four diverse recombination crossover points near the 3' end of the VP1 coding region. The complete antigenic site IIIa was replaced by PV2-specific amino acids in four of the studied PV3 strains.

[Primate models of human viral hepatitis].

The paper summarizes the updates available in the literature and the authors' own data on the etiology of hepatitis, its models, and experimental studies on susceptible simian types. A comparative analysis of the etiological agents--the causative agents of simian and human hepatitis will give a better insight into the evolution of its viruses.

[Viral hepatitis E. The problems of its study].

The paper presents the results of investigations of hepatitis E (HE), which have been made at the Department of Viral Hepatitides, M. P. Chumakov Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitides, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.

[Prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis E virus among residents of different climate and geographic zones of Russia Federation].

The detection frequency of antibodies to Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) was studied in residents of the South and of the Middle European Part of the Russia Federation as well as of Siberia. Antibodies to HEV were most often found both in patients with hepatic pathologies and in subjects with diseases unrelated with a primary hepatic lesion, in particular, in patients with skin and venereal diseases and with HEV. A higher concentration of antibodies to HEV was noted also in blood donors, medical personnel and isolated communities, like prisons or psychiatric clinics.

[An unusual course of viral hepatitis A in children].

To determine the present-day specific clinical features of viral hepatitis A (HA) in children, observation on 447 children aged 1 year and 10 months to 14 years with verified HA monoinfection was carried out. At the season of 1993 essential differences were observed in the clinical picture of HA: the disease took a more severe course with the prevalence of medium-severe (59.3%) and severe (3.