Hepatitis delta virus Antigenemia in all children after induction chemotherapy

ABSTRACT

Hepatitis delta virus [HDV] is a defective virus which requires hepatitis B virus as a helper virus. The present study was carried out on sera of 58 ALL children after induction chemotherapy for the detection of HBV markers and HDV antigen by enzyme linked immunosorbant assay [ELISA] technique. Of the 58 ALL cases, with a mean age of 5.8 years, 34 were positive for one or more of the HBV markers, 22 were positive for HBsAg, 13 were positive for HB anti- core IgM, 10 were positive for anti-HBs and 9 were positive for HbeAg. Of these 34 patients, 7 were found to be positive for HDV antigen. ALL 7 children showed elevated ALT levels, which was statistically significantly different when compared to HDAg negative children. On the other hand, 24 ALL children were negative for all HBV markers and were also negative for HD antigen. Co-infection of HBV and HDV was the prominent pattern of infection in these patients. As these leukemic children had received multiple transfusions during induction therapy, they became liable to acquire both viruses from infected blood