[Etiologic structure of viral hepatitis in children based on data from an comprehensive serologic study of hospitalized patients].

During a year an overall serological examination of 1,200 children hospitalized with the diagnosis of viral hepatitis was carried out with a view to establish the presence of hepatitis A and hepatitis B markers (anti-HAV IgM, HBsAg, anti-HBs, anti-HBc and anti-HBe IgM) by means of the enzyme immunoassay and radioimmunoassay. The average annual proportion of cases of hepatitis A (61.4%), hepatitis B (20.4%), hepatitis non A, non B (11.2%) and mixed infection (7.0%) among children, as well as seasonal and age-group fluctuations of this proportion, were established. The etiological structure of viral hepatitides, based on commonly accepted clinico-epidemiological diagnostic criteria, was shown to differ from their true etiological structure as determined in accordance with specific serological markers detected in this investigation.