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Prolonged fecal excretion of hepatitis A virus in adult patients with hepatitis A as determined by polymerase chain reaction
Author(s) -
Yotsuyanagi H,
Koike K,
Yasuda K,
Moriya K,
Shintani Y,
Fujie H,
Kurokawa K,
Iino S
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
hepatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.488
H-Index - 361
eISSN - 1527-3350
pISSN - 0270-9139
DOI - 10.1002/hep.510240103
Subject(s) - feces , viral shedding , excretion , virology , polymerase chain reaction , alanine transaminase , virus , hepatitis a , hepatitis , hepatitis a virus , medicine , reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , messenger rna , gene , biochemistry
In hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection, fecal excretion of the virus has been reported to cease shortly after symptoms occur. Although there have been several reports on detection of HAV in feces using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the duration of fecal HAV shedding in human adult hepatitis A has not been well described. In the present study, we applied the reverse‐transcription (RT)‐PCR system to the detection of fecal HAV RNA in 10 patients with sporadic hepatitis A. The viral genomic RNA was detected in the stools from five patients after the onset of clinical symptoms. All stool samples collected within 10 days of onset of illness were HAV‐RNA‐positive, and the duration of positivity lasted from a few days to as long as 3 months. In four patients, HAV RNA was detected in the stool even after the serum alanine transaminase (ALT) levels had peaked, and in one patient well after ALT levels fell to normal. These results show that fecal shedding of HAV can last for months after resolution of symptoms and such patients could be a source of further spreading of the virus in the community.