Abstracts Poster Abstracts - Dr Falk

4Delta viral hepatitis: A serious health problem in BulgariaHristiania Arnaudova, Nedialka Popivanova, Jordanka Stoilova, Hristina GeorgievaDepartment of Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology, Parasitology and Tropical Medicine,Medical University, Plovdiv, BulgariaDelta hepatitis has a worldwide distribution. There are three zones of HDV (hepatitis Dvirus) endemicity - low, intermediate and high. Viral hepatitis D (VHD) is a serious healthproblem in Bulgaria that deserves special attention.Aim: The authors made a comparative, retrospective and prospective study on themorbidity and mortality of HDV infection in 3 six-year periods: 1986-1991; 1992-1997;1998-2003 and presented the features of the clinical development of delta viral hepatitis.Material and methods: Viral hepatitis was diagnosed by conventional laboratory andinstrumental analysis. HDV infection was proved by routine immune methods fordiagnosis. All patients have positive HBsAg and HDV AB. In some patients liver biopsyand specific immunological analysis were performed.Results: All 100 patients were classified into eight age groups irrespective of their sex.These included 33 women and 67 men aged from 5 months to 73 years, hospitalizedin the Clinic of Infective Diseases at the "St. George" University Multipurpose Hospitalfor Active Treatment - Plovdiv, in the period 1986-2003. The patients were classifiedirrespective of the type of HDV infection - coinfection and superinfection. We gradedthem according to the severity of the course of the disease into 3 groups: I group - mildcases, II group - moderate and III group - severe disease. Acute hepatic failure wasobserved in 9 patient and 6 patient had fatal outcome of the disease. In 62 patients theHDV infection became chronic. Some of the results are shown in table 1.Conclusions: Patients with hepatitis D seem to suffer from a more severe andprogressive disease than do those patients with other forms of viral hepatitis. VHD is anexample of an infection from the past that has its imprint on the present and itsmanagement and eradication remain to be achieved in the future. Further immunizationagainst HBV of risk groups will resolve the problem of HDV infection.