[The theoretical bases of the epidemiology of viral hepatitis B].

In this article the development of the concepts concerning the sources of hepatitis B virus in the second half of the XXth century is analyzed and the importance of patients with manifest and latent forms of chronic infection as the main reservoir of the infective agent is substantiated. The scheme of the mechanisms and paths of the transmission of hepatitis B virus is proposed, the mechanism of transmission understood only as the natural ways of the spread of the infective agent which result from its evolutionary development and can be only slightly controlled at present. The study revealed that the present decrease of morbidity rate is greatly determined by measures of the social character, aimed at the elimination of the artificial paths of virus transmission.