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Stephen M. Feinstone, MD; Robert H. Purcell, MD

JAMA. 1978;240(13):1384-1385.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Sensitive serologic tests capable of diagnosing essentially all infections with hepatitis A virus and hepatitis B virus (HBV) have shown that certain patients with a viral hepatitis-like syndrome have neither hepatitis A nor hepatitis B. Such cases of non-A, non-B hepatitis have been most frequently recognized in studies of transfusion-associated hepatitis. Less than 20% of posttransfusion hepatitis is due to HBV if only blood from voluntary donors that has been screened by thirdgeneration tests for the presence of hepatitis B surface antigen is used for transfusion. Type A hepatitis rarely, if ever, results from blood transfusion.^1,2 Thus, most transfusion-associated hepatitis in the United States has an unknown cause.

Non-A, non-B hepatitis resembles type B disease in several respects. First, the common route of infection by blood or blood products indicates that a chronic carrier state must exist in relatively asymptomatic persons. Second, non-A, non-B hepatitis has been found to . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases National Institutes of Health Bethesda, Md

Footnotes
Address editorial communications to the Editor, 535 N Dearborn St, Chicago, IL 60610.

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