Prevention and control of perinatal hepatitis B virus transmission in ...

Part I Prevention and control of perinatal hepatitis B virustransmission in the WHO European Region– bibliography (in alphabetical order) –_______________________________________________________________________________Abe K, Hayakawa E, Sminov AV, Rossina AL, Ding X, Huy TT, Sata T, Uchaikin VF.Molecular epidemiology of hepatitis B, C, D and E viruses among children in Moscow, Russia. JClin Virol 2004; 30:57-61.Department of Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjuku-ku,Tokyo 162-8640, Japan. kenjiabe@nih.go.jpIt is known that the prevalence of HBV and HCV infections vary according to geographical areas.However, in Russia, an adequate level of information on the molecular epidemiology of hepatitisviruses has not been available so far. The objectives were to investigate the characterization ofvarious hepatitis viruses in Russia, we conducted molecular-based epidemiological survey ofhepatitis viruses including hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis D virus(HDV) and hepatitis E virus (HEV) among children in Moscow, Russia. The study population of374 subjects (ranging in age from 1 to 14 years old) consisted of 195 patients with liver diseasesand 179 patients without liver diseases. Viral DNA/RNA was determined by nested PCR.Genotyping of HBV and HCV were examined by PCR using type-specific primers. Anti-HEVantibody was assayed by ELISA. The infection rate of each virus among patients with liverdiseases including acute hepatitis, chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis was 65.6% for HBV and 15.9% forHCV. In contrast, among non-liver disease patients, the infection rates were 14.4% for HBV and0.6% for HCV, respectively. The most common viral genotypes were type D (85%) of HBV andtype 1b (79.3%) of HCV. HDV RNA was detected in 7 of 149 (4.7%) HBV DNA-positivechildren tested. Moreover, testing for HEV among 341 subjects resulted in the detection of anti-HEV IgG in 62 cases (18.2%). Our results suggest that HBV infection is widespread in Moscowand have led to a high incidence of acute and chronic liver diseases among children in this region.Aggarwal R, Naik SR. Prevention of hepatitis B infection: the appropriate strategy for India. NatlMed J India 1994; 7:216-220.Department of Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences,Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.Hepatitis B infection is a major global health problem with a high morbidity and mortality. Withsafe and effective vaccines available, it is now possible to prevent it. Many countries have startednational hepatitis B control programmes but no attempt has been made to do this in our country.An analysis of the available data on the epidemiology of hepatitis B infection in India reveals thatperinatal maternofoetal transmission accounts for only a minority of hepatitis B virus carriers inIndia. Therefore, a policy of screening pregnant mothers for the presence of hepatitis B surfaceantigen and selective immunization of babies born to those who are surface antigen positive willhave very little effect on the hepatitis B carrier rate in our population. Universal immunization ofall newborns will have a much greater impact, it will be logistically simpler and more costeffective--thecost of preventing one hepatitis B carrier being nearly one-fourth of that withselective immunization. We recommend that hepatitis B vaccine should be included in ourcountry's expanded programme of immunization.3