[The spread of hepatitis C markers among the population of regions of Russia and Central Asia]. / Rasprostranenie markerov gepatita C sredi naseleniia nekotorykh regionov Rossii i Srednei Azii.

A total of 2,217 blood serum samples taken from the population of some regions of the former USSR were studied for the presence of antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) with the use of a commercial enzyme immunoassay system (obtained from Ortho, Japan). Perceptible changes in the detection rate of these antibodies throughout the territory of the former USSR were established. Most frequently anti-HCV antibodies were detected among the population of the republics of Central Asia (5.3-2.9%), as well as Tuva and Yakutia (2.5-3.0%), their lowest detection rate was in Moscow (1.3%). In Moscow the results of the assay in adults were positive twice as frequently as in children, and in donors with an elevated level of alanine-transferase activity the presence of these antibodies was confirmed in 8.9% of cases. The frequency of the confirmation of the presence of anti-HCV antibodies by recombinant immunoblotting was 70.7% in all positive sera and 100% in the sera from a group of donors with an elevated enzyme level. In many respects coincidence between the regularities in the spread of viral hepatitic C and hepatitides B, D was noted.

[The epidemiological diagnosis of "fecal-oral" hepatitis E in Tajikistan]. / Epidemiologicheskaia diagnostika "fekal'no-oral'nogo" gepatita E v Tadzhikistane.

On the basis of the results of the retrospective epidemiological analysis of hepatitis A morbidity for many years in the Leninabad (now Hojend) region of Tajikistan the possibility of the epidemiological diagnosis of fecal-oral hepatitis non A, non B, also known as hepatitis E, was confirmed. Analysis of the specific features of a sharp morbidity rise in hepatitis A in this region in 1986-1987 made it possible to establish that this rise was caused by hepatitis E. This was testified by the explosive character of morbidity; the prevalence of persons aged 15-29 years, found to have antibodies to hepatitis A virus in 95% of cases (among patients, these persons constituted 67.5% of the total number of hepatitis A patients and children of preschool age constituted only 8.8% of such patients); sharply pronounced irregularity in the distribution of morbidity in individual settlements, depending on the state of water supply; a low number of the foci of infection in patient's families; the unfavorable course of the disease in pregnant women with high mortality rate (19%) among them. Similar epidemiological features were noted in hepatitis E outbreaks, occurring at the same period in the adjoining regions in Kirghizia and Uzbekistan, where the etiology of the disease was established by excluding the markers of hepatitides A and B in most of the patients. Some data indicate that the causes of these outbreaks of hepatitis E were linked with the water route of the transmission of hepatitis E virus.

[The etiological structure of acute viral hepatitis in Tadzhikistan in a period of decreased morbidity]. / Etiologicheskaia struktura ostrykh virusnykh gepatitov v Tadzhikistane v period snizheniia zabolevaemosti.

In the period of reduced incidence of viral hepatitis in Tajikistan, January-December, 1990, 1562 patients with acute viral hepatitis (AVH) were examined in the first days of the jaundice phase (928 children under 14 years and 634 adults) in Dushanbe. Markers of hepatitis A, B, and D (HBsAg, anti-HA IgM, anti-HBc IgM, anti-delta IgM) were determined by enzyme immunoassay. Hepatitis A occurred in 25.8% of the patients with AVH, mostly children of 1-6 years, HB in 22.8%, HD co- and superinfection) in 9.2%. In 42.1% of the patients who had no HA, HB, or HD markers in the blood, non-A, non-B hepatitis (mostly hepatitis E) was diagnosed, mainly in the age groups of 30-39 years (70.7%) and 15-29 years (59.2%). Thus, in Tajikistan hepatitis E occurs not only during outbreaks of this infection but also sporadically.