Detection of HBs antigen, DNA polymerase activity, and hepatitis B virus DNA in tears: relevance to hepatitis B transmission by tears.

Hepatitis B surface antigen, DNA polymerase, and hepatitis B virus DNA have been sought in the tears of 72 patients. These markers were detected in a high percentage of hepatitis B carriers, which proves the presence of hepatitis B virus in the tears and raises the question of its eventual transmission in this way. The severity and extreme contagiousness of hepatitis B together with the increasing number of virus carriers justify systematic sanitary rules among ophthalmic clinicians and staff, but vaccination remains the best mean of limiting the spread of the disease.