Abstract

Despite the existence of hepatitis B vaccination, hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is still prevalent worldwide and accounts for significant morbidity and mortality. In chronic infection with hepatitis virus B the fact that HBeAg becomes negative does not always means suppression of viral replication. It is encouraging that majority of patients do recover from the acute infection, however, those that progress to chronic disease state is at great risk of developing complications such as hepatocellular carcinoma, cirrhosis and liver failure. The selection of patients was those who had elevated levels of liver enzyme SGPT (ALT), The HB s Ag and anti HCV n = 1890  by ELISA were performed to identify the positive cases with HB s Ag. Furthermore, in this study we performed HB e Ag by ELISA for identifying the infectious and the carrier state. The PCR was performed for the confirmation of infectious status, carrier state and the late sero conversation state. HB s Ag were n = 1890; out of which n = 1242 are negative cases and 648 were positive cases. On further analysis of hepatitis B virus variant were carried out and HB e Ag, HB e Ab,  HB c Core Ig M, and anti-HB c Core was also performed on n = 648 cases to put patients in different status of infection. During this study we also identified the chronic carrier status with No sero conversion and later sero conversion state. It is encouraging that we easily identify different stages of hepatitis B by Serological markers, DNA extraction, determination of HBV – DNA by PCR. Present study helps in understanding the nature of HBV infection and delivering better care for patients, it was very important to screen the different stages of the infection.

Key words: Hepatitis B, stages of HBs Ag, HBV infection.