Hepatitis D virus infection in Isfahan, central Iran: Prevalence and risk factors among chronic HBV infection cases

Background: hepatitis d virus (hdv) is dependent on hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection. acute infection with hdv can occur simultaneously with acute hbv infection or be superimposed onto a chronic hbv infection.objectives: this study aimed to identify cases of hdv and determine its prevalence in patients with chronic hbv infection for the first time study in isfahan, central iran.patients and methods: in a cross-sectional study in 2009, 346 who had been diagnosed for at least 6 months with chronic hbv were enrolled consecutively. anti-hdv was measured by elisa in the serum of these patients.results: the study included 245 males (70.8%) and 101 (29.2%) females with a mean age of 39 ± 12.4 years. anti-hdv was present in 8 (3.5%) hbe antibody-positive patients (p = 0.36) and in 2 (2.3%) hbe antigen-positive cases (p = 0.68). no association was found between hepatitis d and probable risk factors. conclusions: this study demonstrates that the prevalence of hdv infection is higher in patients who are positive for hbeab compared those who are hbeag-positive. therefore, most hdv antibody-positive cases in isfahan are hbv/hdv superinfections but not coinfections.