Experience in examining infectious hepatitis patients by using a viral detection method
Savinskaia, S.S.; Andraparidze, A.G.; Balaian, M.S.; Kantor, G.S.; Korolev, M.B.
Zhurnal Mikrobiologii Epidemiologii i Immunobiologii 7: 96-100
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0372-9311 PMID: 224627 Document Number: 150278
Immune electron microscopy was shown to be an acceptable diagnostic method which allowed to detect hepatitis A virus particles in the stools of patients with infectious hepatitis even at the late stages of the disease. The examination of stools from 225 children (aged 2--17 years) hospitalized with diagnosed infectious hepatitis during the period of a seasonal rise in morbidity rate yielded positive findings at an average rate of 10.5%. This rate also depended on the severity of the disease and the patient's age. The results obtained indicated that patients with infectious hepatitis could shed the virus for a long time (about 2 weeks) after the onset of the disease. Patients with the atypical, or anicteric, form of the disease could be equally considered a source of virus shedding. The prolonged excretion of viral particles did not correlate with delayed IgM response. The particles identified as hepatitis A virus seemed to be antigenically very close, if not identical, to the virus circulating in some other countries (USA, Australia, West Germany).