Liver disease in Papua New Guinea 1981 to 1988, twenty years after the first surveys were done.

Twenty years after the first surveys of liver disease were done cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma were still found to be the most important liver diseases in Papua New Guinea. Hepatitis B virus appears to be the main cause of both these conditions. Data from a number of different sources suggest a prevalence of hepatitis B positivity of about 17%. The most significant new finding was grade 3 iron deposition in 8 patients. This raises the question as to whether iron storage disease may now contribute to the spectrum of liver disease in Papua New Guinea. Many biopsies in the 1960s and 1980s were interpreted as nonspecific hepatitis; in the light of recent observations, at least some of these may have been due to hepatitis C infection.