Hepatitis B.

Since the recognition and description of the hepatitis B virus in the early 1970s, the spectrum of disease caused by this virus has become clearly defined. Our understanding of the hepatitis B virus has rapidly increased over the past two decades due to the discovery of various serologic markers and correlation of these with clinical and epidemiological data. Advances in techniques in molecular biology, such as recombinant DNA and hybridization have also recently added impetus to hepatitis research. The word-wide consequences of acute and chronic infection have prompted intense research into the development of effective, but as yet expensive, forms of prophylaxis.