[Hepatitis B virus markers and lymphocyte populations in the asymptomatic multiple-drug addict]

The authors have studied in particular hepatitis B virus markers and the ratio of OKT4+/OKT8+ cells in two subgroups of 52 deprived asymptomatic drug addicts. In the group 1 (deprived for 19 days on an average), 52% of the subjects showed a ratio of OKT4+/OKT8+ less than 1, whereas in the group 2 (deprived for 30 months on an average), this percentage is only of 25%. HBV markers were present in 90% of the subjects in each group. We would like to point out the high frequency of the anti-HBc positivity without other markers in these two groups, respectively 20% in the group 1 and 32% in the group 2. These results emphasize the interest in screening systematically this marker in all blood donors.