Abid Mahmood.
Hepatitis B Virus: Prevalence in Karachi.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;10(3):107-8.

Acute viral hepatitis (AVH) is one of the major public health problems in Pakistan. The majority of acute hepatitis cases are due to faeco orally transmitted Hepatitis `A` (in children) and Hepatitis `E` (in adults) viruses. Hepatitis `B` virus (HBV) causes acute hepatitis in a small proportion of the cases. A total of 1225 cases having clinical and biochemical presentation of AVH were studied during June 1997 to Dec 1998. All the cases were tested for the presence of HBsAg in their sera by using third generation microparticle enzyme immunoassay (MEIA-Abbott). These HBsAg positive cases were further tested for Anti-HBc IgM (MEIA-Abbott). HBsAg was detected in 12%(n=147) of the AVH cases. Out of these HBsAg positive cases anti-HBc IgM was detected in 45.57%(n=67). Out of the total AVH cases only 5.46% were positive for Anti-HBc IgM (acute HBV infection). This study shows that only a minority of the cases presenting with AVH was positive for HBsAg, of which 55% cases were HBV carriers due to previous infection and the rest 45% cases had acute HBV infection.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com