The etiology of acute hepatitis in adults in Egypt.

The causes of acute hepatitis were prospectively studied in 141 patients admitted to Embaba Fever Hospital, Cairo, Egypt in 1983. Serologic diagnosis showed: hepatitis A (0.7%), hepatitis B (46.8%), dual infections with A and B (1.4%), acute hepatitis in HBsAg carriers (14.2%), drug induced hepatitis (5.7%), and hepatitis non-A non-B (NANB) (31.2%). Among hepatitis B patients tested for the following seromarkers, 40% had HBeAg, 8% anti-delta antibody, and 6 simultaneous presence of HBsAg and anti-HBs; in convalescence, a 9% HBsAg carrier rate was found. Clinical, epidemiological, and biochemical findings did not distinguish one cause of hepatitis from another. For 32% of NANB patients parenteral injection was a likely source of infection.