Situation analysis of plasma collected for the production of DMR Hepatitis B vaccine

The Department of Medical Research (DMR) has been producing a safe and effective plasma derived hepatitis B (HB) vaccine since 1997 to meet the criteria of quality control tests recommended by the WHO. The production of this HBvaccine requires the HBs antigen (Ag) pasitive blood as raw material which has been collected from blood banks of the various hospitals in Yangon area. Among these collected blood bottles, only those with high HBsAg titre were pooled and purified for further manufacturing process. In this study, HBsAg titre of the blood bottles collected during the year 1992, 1993,1999 and 2000, and those used for production of various batches of HB vaccine were determined and compared. It was found that the quantities of blood bottles available for HB vaccine production and their HBsAg titres have been apparently reduced in the last two years. This may affect the production capacity of the vaccine. This could be one of the major obstacles ofr the large scale production of the plasma-derived HB vaccine tho meet the requirement of Extended Program of Immumization (EPI) in the near future. To fulfil this requirement, several solutions have been considered and discussed in this study.

Studies on the stability of DMR hepatitis B vaccine

The stability of the DMR hepatitis B vaccine at 4C and room temperature has been followed over a period of one year by monitoring its physical, chemical and biological characteristics bimonthly starting from February 1996. The pH and protein content of the vaccine did not change for both storage conditions throughout the study. The vaccines were found to be sterile and free from pyrogens and passed the general safety test on mice. The HBsAg titer started to decline after eight months of storage at 4C and after 10 days of storage at room temperature. However, the HBsAg adsorption rate to the adjuvant remained over 95 per cent for both storage conditions.

Clinical trial to determine the hypouricaemic potential of Zizyphus jujuba kernel

Clinical trial to determine the therapeutic efficacy of a traditional herbal drug, Zizyphus jujuba kernel reputed for anti-gout action was carried out on 20 healthy volunteers. Using a cross-over design, the subjects were divided into two groups. Group I received standard hypouricaemic drug, allopurinol and Group II was administered Z. jujuba dernel for 14 days. after a wash-out period of another 7 days, the drugs were crossed over between the two groups in which Group I was administered Z. jujuba kernel and Group II was administered allopurinol for further 14 days again. Blood and urine samples of these subjects were taken at 5 days' intervals throughout the study period for determination of uric acid, creatinine and liver function tests. It was found that Z. jujuba shows no abnormalities on kidney and liver function tests. It also possesses neither hypouricaemic nor uricosuric actions.

Alpha fetoprotein in Myanmar patients with chronic liver diseases

In patients with chromic liver diseases, the measurement of serum alpha fetoprotein level is an invaluable laboratory investigation to assess the disease progress and to detect early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. A total of 150 sera samples were collected from normal individuals, hepatitis B surface antigen carriers, patients with hepatomagaly, fatty liver, chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The sera were examined for serum alpha fetoprotein levels by radia-immunoassay technique, one of the most sensitive methods available. The results showed that the sera alpha fetoprotein levels correlate with the severity of the liver diseases as all of normal individuals, hepatitis-B surface antigen carriers, hepatomegaly and fatty liver patients showed normal levels and 5-17 percent of chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis patients were low positive. Also 73 percent of hepatocellular carcinoma patients were positive with 50 percent of them revealing high levels of alpha fetoprotein.

Detection of hepatitis E virus genome with a thymine-thymine dimerized cNDA probe

The study described the spot hybridization technique using a non-radiolabelled, thymine-thymine dimerized synthetic oligonucleotide complementary DNA(cDNA) proble for the detection of hepatitis E virus genome in bile. The test performed well with high degree of sensitivity and specificity. It was compared with the conventional electron microscopy and was found to be thousand times more sensitive.

Hepatitis B makers in a study group with human immunodeficiency virus infection in Myanmar, 1989

During 1989, 200 sera, Positive for Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody by both Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ElISA) and Western Blot Immunoassay were selected randomly to be tested for Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) markers. 75

of the sera belonged to intravenous drug abusers with the remaining from hospitalized patients, blood donors and persons attending the Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Clinics. HBsAg was positive in 12.5

, HBeAg in 3

, anti-HBs in 34.5

and anti-HBc in 86

of the test group. Since the epidemiology of HIV and HBV infections are similar regarding the modes of transmission (parenteral, perinatal and sexual), the risk groups affected and the occurrence of chronic asymptomatic infection creating a reservoir for further spread, HIV infected persons can be assumed to have a high infection rate for HBV. In our study, the infection rate for HBV was very high being 92

.

Preliminary study of two major transfusion associated viral infections (Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Hepatitis B virus) during routine donor screening

A total of 5973 blood donor specimens were tested for both HBsAg and HIV antibody, simultaneously. 2.18 per cent was initially reactive to ELISA, 0.67 per cent was repeatedly ELISA positive, 0.2 per cent was indeterminate and 0.39 per cent was confirmed for HIV antibody by IMMUMOBLOT ASSAY. The prevalence of HBsAg among blood donors was found to be 10.56 per cent with 11.1 per cent for male dornors and 5.06 per cent for female donors.

Incidence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection in drug abusers

A total of 1035 drug abusers were screened for HIV-antibodies. 19 per cent are positive for anti-HIV in drug addict using drugs by various routes including intravenous routes. Where as 51.3 per cent of intravenous drug abusers were positive. Even among IVDA, hospitalized cases are 70 per cent positive against 40.9 per cent in non-hospitalized cases.