Delta virus infection and severe hepatitis [reported epidemics in Sind]

Large outbreaks of acute hepatitis are unusual in the developing world. Recently large epidemics have been reported in various parts of Asia and have been attributed to hepatitis non A-non B, presumably spread through water. We report here three epidemics of severe hepatitis that resulted from spread of delta agent in three different places in Sind province. The report implicates the delta agent as a possible cause of epidemic hepatitis and sheds further light on the natural course of delta virus infection

Investigation of an epidemic of acute haemorrhagic conjunctivitis

An epidemic of acute harmorrhagic conjunctivitis [AHC] started in Karachi in July, 1986 and quickly spread to other parts of the country. The epidemic died down by the end of September, 1986. The usual clinical picture of acute conjunctivitis was observed, however, haemorrhages were seen in. only 3.0% of the cases. The aetiological agent was identified as a variant of the Coxsackievirus type A 24, which seems to have appeared in this part of the world for the first time. The paper describes the laboratory investigations undertaken to study the aetiological agent and its virological characteristics