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Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A is a disease of worldwide distribution which occurs in endemic and epidemic form and is transmitted primarily by person-to-person contact through the fecal-oral route. Common source epidemics due to contamination of food are relatively common, and water-borne epidemics have been describe...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Maynard, James E.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 1976
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2595349/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/183390
Descripción
Sumario:Hepatitis A is a disease of worldwide distribution which occurs in endemic and epidemic form and is transmitted primarily by person-to-person contact through the fecal-oral route. Common source epidemics due to contamination of food are relatively common, and water-borne epidemics have been described less frequently. The presumed etiologic agent of hepatitis A has now been visualized by immune electron microscopic (IEM) techniques in early acute-illness-phase stools of humans with hepatitis A as well as in chimpanzees experimentally infected with material known to contain hepatitis A virus. In addition, several new serologic tests for the detection of antibody against hepatitis A virus have been described. These include complement fixation and immune adherence techniques. Current data suggest that hepatitis A is caused by a single viral agent lacking the morphologic heterogeneity of hepatitis B viral components and that there may be relative antigenic homogeneity between strains of virus recovered from various parts of the world. Serologic studies to date also indicate that hepatitis A virus is not a major contributing cause in post-transfusion hepatitis.