Viral Hepatitis

Abstract

Serial serum specimens (before infection through 200 days after infection) in 31 MS-1 (short incubation) and 19 MS-2 (long incubation) cases of viral hepatitis were examined for the presence of Australia/SH antigen. An agar-gel double-diffusion technic was used. The antigen was not detected in any serum from the MS-1 series, but it appeared regularly after MS-2 infection, usually well in advance of evidence of hepatitis. In approximately half the MS-2 infections the antigen was present only transiently (up to 68 days), but in the remainder, it persisted throughout the period of intensive observation and for at least three years subsequently.