High prevalence of delta virus infection in Thai intravenous drug abusers.

The prevalence of antibodies to delta virus (anti-delta) in the selected groups of hepatitis B surface antigenemia population was investigated. The subjects were 84 intravenous drug abusers; 20 chronic hepatitis, 12 cirrhosis, 6 primary hepatocellular carcinoma and 46 asymptomatic healthy carriers. Anti-delta was detected in 65.48% of intravenous drug abusers, 11.11% of chronic active hepatitis and 8.33% of cirrhosis cases. None of asymptomatic carriers had anti-delta. In addition, 51 acute icteric hepatitis B patients who were positive for HBs Ag and 20 IV drug abusers positive for anti-HBc only (HBsAg and anti-HBs negative) were negative for anti-delta.