Investigation on Etiology of Viral Hepahtis in Six Flood Stricken Provinces of China in 1998

In order to investigate the major epidendc types of viral hepatitis after theflood strike in 1998 in China, we collected 1 135 serum samples of hepatitis patients fromhospitals of 6 flood stricken provinces (the autonomous region, the same below) in Februa-ry ~April 1999, and tested the samples for hepatitis infectious markers, IgM of HAV, HBcand HEV by ELISA. The results showed that ① Half of the hepatitis cases after floodstrike were acute hepatitis (45.75%), the other half were mostly chronic hepatitis B with afew of other types of hepatitis, ② Of the acute hepatitis, hepatitis A, B and E accountedfor 57.42%, 30.06% and 12.52% respectively, ③ In HBsAg positive hepatitis cases, 32.21 %of them could be determined as acute hepatitis, among them the lgM positivity of hepatitisA, B and E were 26. 18%, 68.08% and 5.76% respectively. It demonstrated that in the floodstricken provinces in 1998, the acute viral hepatitis was chiefly of hepatitis A and the chron-ic viral hepatitis was the hepatitis B. These two types of hepatitis may be considered as theimportant preventive objects after flood strike.