Acute sporadic non-A, non-B hepatitis in Greece.

The influence of non-A, non-B (NANB) agent(s) on the aetiology of acute sporadic viral hepatitis and its possible transition to chronic hepatitis were studied. Acute sporadic NANB hepatitis was diagnosed in 134 (13.5%) of the 993 Greek adults who were admitted consecutively to the Western Attica General Hospital from February 1986 to September 1987. The male to female ratio was 2.1:1, and the mean age of the patients was 39.7 +/- 17.5 years (range: 16-77 years). Serological markers of past hepatitis B virus infection were detected in 32.1% of the patients. Possible risk factors occurring within 6 months of the onset of hepatitis were parenteral drug abuse in 43 (32.1%), blood transfusions in 26 (19.4%), possibly iatrogenic in 22 (16.4%), homosexual practice in one (0.7%) and no recognized risk factors in 42 (31.4%) patients. The most common source of infection was parenteral drug abuse (65%) in patients less than 30 years old and unknown (41.9%) in patients older than 30 years old. Chronic hepatitis, defined by biochemical criteria, was observed in 55.6% of the cases irrespective of the risk factor. These data show that parenteral drug abuse made a significant contribution to the spread of NANB agent(s) but not homosexual practice and that the rate of chronicity was high.