Neonatal Onset of the Hepatitis-Associated-Antigen Carrier State

Abstract

HEPATITIS B antigen (HBAg) occurs in three general clinical groups: in acute B-type viral hepatitis in which HBAg is present in the early phase of illness and disappears in 95 per cent of patients concomitant with clinical recovery; in association with certain diseases such as Down's syndrome, uremia treated with hemodialysis, renal-transplant recipients, leukemia and lepromatous leprosy, in which persistence of HBAg is common; and in asymptomatic carriers who report neither exposure to blood products nor contact with patients with hepatitis.^{1 2 3} Persistence of HBAg in the first two groups has been postulated to be due to individual host variation in . . .