[Diagnosis and monitoring of acute viral hepatitis A, B and C].

Acute viral hepatitis A, B and D share a common clinical complex including 4 phases: incubation, pre-icteric phase, icteric phase and convalescence. The diagnosis, suggested by clinical symptoms and by biochemical abnormalities that are often characteristic, must be confirmed by viral serology. Hepatitis A never becomes chronic. With hepatitis B or B and D, evolution to chronicity is possible, and the patients should be investigated for the return to normal values of transaminases, the disappearance of the HBs antigen and the appearance of anti-HBs antibodies. There is no specific treatment of acute viral hepatitis, but in case of hepatitis B prophylactic measures must be taken in the husband, the wife or the partner.