Hepatitis delta virus superinfection among patients with chronic hepatitis B in southern Taiwan.

To study the prevalence of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) superinfection among patients with chronic hepatitis in southern Taiwan, total and IgM anti-delta antibody (anti-HD) and delta antigen (HDAg) were determined in 85 histology-proven patients with chronic hepatitis. There were 12/85 (14.1%) cases with total anti-HD; 3 of them were also positive for IgM anti-HD. Another 9 (10.6%) cases were positive for HDAg. Thus, the prevalence of HDV superinfection was 21/85 (24.7%), which was significantly higher than previous reports in southern Taiwan. The difference was not seen if anti-HD was used as the only detector. It is concluded that, when other methods are used than previously, HDV infection is more common than previously thought and there is no difference between different parts of Taiwan.