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Acute infection with hepatitis B virus is associated with acute viral hepatitis, an illness that begins with general ill-health, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, body aches, mild fever, and dark urine, and then progresses to development of jaundice. The illness lasts for a few weeks and then gradually improves in most affected people.
The typical seroconversion timecourse for hepatitis B. Seroconversion plays a major role in the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis B infections. [60] As in other viral infections, seropositivity indicates that an individual has a sufficiently high concentration of antibody or antigen in the blood to be detectable by standard techniques.
The origin of hepatitis B virus can be traced back to the 5th century BCE and is even mentioned in Babylonian clay tablets. Hippocrates later described an epidemic of jaundice among his patients that was characterized by the yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes. Jaundice is a clinical sign of hepatitis B viral infection.
Hepatitis D is a defective virus that requires hepatitis B to replicate and is only found with hepatitis B co-infection. [17] In adults, hepatitis B infection is most commonly self-limiting, with less than 5% progressing to chronic state, and 20 to 30% of those chronically infected developing cirrhosis or liver cancer. [31] Infection in infants ...
Detection of viral RNA and DNA genomes can be performed using polymerase chain reaction. This technique makes many copies of the virus genome using virus-specific probes. Variations of PCR such as nested reverse transcriptase PCR and real time PCR can also be used to determine viral loads in
The Hepatitis B virus (HBV) polymerase is a multifunctional enzyme, with both RNA-dependent and DNA-dependent polymerase functions, as well as an RNase H function. It acts on the HBV pre-genomic RNA (pgRNA) to reverse transcribe it to form a new rcDNA molecule within a new capsid.
A precore mutant is a variety of hepatitis B virus that does not produce hepatitis B virus e antigen (HBeAg). [1] These mutants are important because infections caused by these viruses are difficult to treat, [2] and can cause infections of prolonged duration and with a higher risk of liver cirrhosis. [3]
A vaccine is available to prevent infection for life. Hepatitis B infections result in 500,000 to 1,200,000 deaths per year worldwide due to the complications of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).