Reports of successful antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection appeared three decades ago,1 and during the past decade, progress has accelerated dramatically. Along with progress, however, has come complexity. So much more is known now than at the dawn of the antiviral era about the protean clinical expressions of HBV infection that determining whom, when, and how to treat has become progressively more challenging.
Virologic and Epidemiologic Factors and Natural History
HBV, a DNA virus transmitted percutaneously, sexually, and perinatally, affects 1.25 million persons in the United States and 350 to 400 million persons worldwide. HBV infection accounts annually for 4000 to 5500 deaths . . .
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/359/14/1486
Hepatitis B Virus Infection
Subscribe to:
|