Viral hepatitis in Alexandria

This study was carried out on 1919 clinically diagnosed hepatitis patients admitted to the Alexandria Communicable Diseases Hospital during the period from August 1974 -July 1975. With the aim of investigating the personal, social and environmental background of cases, to determine the proportion of HBsAg positive cases among a sample of the patients and to study the outcome of the disease. The attack rate was found to be 9.4 per 10,000 population and was considered to be a minimum attack rate. It varied by district in Alexandria, and was highest for the age group 15 - 24 years. The male to female ratio was 2: 1. Technical and manual work was the most frequent occupation reported by the patients. Hepatitis cases were prevalent all the year round with an increase in late summer. A large proportion of the cases was living at high levels of crowding with a rather low level of sanitary standard of the homes. The mean duration of hospitalization was 14.12 days. The sera of 175 patients subjected to R. I. A. testing detected 53.7% positive cases for HBsAg. Relapse occured in 13.24% of the cases. The calculated fatality rate for hepatitis was 1.62% being higher for patients aged 45 years and more than other age groups