The relative prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), anti-HBs, and anti-hepatitis B virus core antigen (HBc), as markers of hepatitis B virus infection, among 1,866 apparently healthy residents of two Egyptian provinces representing Upper and Lower Egypt populations was determined using solid-phase radioimmunoassay (SPRIA). The prevalence rate of HBsAg in the Egyptian population was moderately high (10.1%); it was higher in the Upper Egypt (11.7%) than the Lower Egypt (8.0%) population and more frequent in young adults--especially those of Upper Egypt--and males than females in both populations. The prevalence of anti-HBs gradually increased with age; it was higher in the Lower Egypt (51.1%) than the Upper Egypt (41.7%) population, and it was higher in females than males. A remarkably high infection rate, as shown by the prevalence of anti-HBc, was found in both populations (88.0%), with minor variations depending on age, sex, and geographic area.

FT and AT are potential noninvasive methods for assessment of hepatic fibrosis and necroinflammatory activity in pediatric patients with chronic HCV infection in comparison with liver biopsy.

Our results support the role of intrafamilial transmission in the spread of HCV.

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Within the experimental errors the interaction mean free paths of He-fragments produced by the collisions of 12 C , 22 Ne and 28 Si nuclei at 4.5 A GeV/c in nuclear emulsion have been found to be independent of the He-multiplicity and the distance from the interaction point. Evidence for the multiplicity scaling of He-fragments is reported. The pseudo-rapidities for the shower particles accompanying the emission of the different multiplicities of the projectile He-fragments are also investigated. Each of these distributions is found to be satisfactorily fitted by a single Gaussian distribution. The temperature of the system emitting the shower particles T is also calculated and found to be independent of both the projectile and the multiplicities of the He-fragment.