Relation of Hepatitis-B-Antigen Subtypes in Symptom-Free Carriers to Geographical Origin and Liver Abnormalities

Subtypes of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) in Blood Donors in Kumamoto, Japan

“…The last subtype has been found very rarely [1,3, personal communication from Le Bouvier, G. L., Bancroft, W. H., and Holland, P. V.]. Since little is known concerning the distribution of the subtypes of HBsAg in Japan [4,7], we have investigated the incidence of these four subtypes in HBsAg-positive plasmas in Kumamoto, located at the southern Japan.…”

Potential risk of salivary-mediated viral hepatitis type B transmission from oral exposure to fomites

“…1974; Kistler et al 1973;Irwin et at. 1975;Feinman et al 1975). However, our data obtained from the 12 students orally exposed to HBsAg-positive saliva indicate that the oral transmission of viral hepatitis, type B from direct or fomites contact is unlikely.…”

“…Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) has been reported in saliva (Ward et al 1972;Orga, 1973; Heathcote, Cameron & Dane, 1974;Villarejos et al 1974; Kistler, Sonnabend & Krech, 1973;Irwin et al 1975;Feinman et al 1975) and it has been suggested that this secretion may be a vehicle for viral hepatitis, type B transmission. Three studies have reported the transmission of viral hepatitis, type B to a human (MacQuarrie, Forghani & Wolochow, 1974), gibbons (Bancroft et al 1977) and chimpanzees (Alter et al 1977) after subcutaneous or intravenous injections of saliva containing HBsAg.…”

Subtypes of Hepatitis B Antigen (HBAg) in Peru

“…Our results (Table 1) with HBAg collected from Peru, which included the highland and lowland areas and Lima city, are compatible with Mazzur et al 1974a) hypothesized that the HBAg subtypes among asymptomatic carriers might be maintained mainly by maternal transmission, mothers to their children, so that the marked geographical separation of subtypes was defined. The maintenance of these subtypes may be reflected in migration history as suggested by Feinman et al (1973). HBAg of Spaniards in Spain is known to be composed of an almost equal mixture of subtypes ad (w) and ay (w) (Pedreida et al 1974).…”

“…Evidence is now appearing (Mazzur et al 1974b) that deter minants d, y and w can be found on the same particle. Different geographical distributions of these subtypes in various areas of the world were also established (Feinman et al 1973;Ishida et al 1973;Mazzur et al 1974a). Mazzur et al (1974a) reported a predominance of subtype adw in the Cash inahua Indian tribe of Peru.…”