[The seroepidemiological observation on hepatitis delta virus infection]

To assess the relationship between hepatitis delta virus (HDV) infection and HBV and reveal the distribution of HDV infection and the feature of epidemic, we collected 271 cases of HBV infected people in Shijiazhuang area and tested anti-HD with EIA from April 1987 to October 1988. This study found the prevalence of HDV infection was as high as 12.92% (35/271), and male prevalence of anti-HD was 14.06% (27/192) and female 10.13% (8/79), but there was no significance difference (P greater than 0.05). This suggested that the area of Shijiazhuan was a spot where HDV infection was high. Among these people, the positive rate of anti-HD in chronic active hepatitis, chronic persistent hepatitis and cirrhosis was much higher than that in HBsAg carriers. These finding indicated that HDV infection (coinfection and superinfection) was important in pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis B and in exacerbating liver disease to cirrhosis. This study confirmed that there was no significant difference between HDV infection and age, sex and occupation among HBV infected people.