[Determination of hepatitis A virus in the feces of patients in the dynamics of the infectious process]

Abstract

Excretion of hepatitis A virus (HAV) in the time course of the infectious process is described. Among 197 fecal specimens collected from 45 patients HAV was found in 40 (20.5%); in 51% of the patients the virus was isolated in the 1st week of the icteric period, in 25% in the 2nd week and in 4% in the 3rd week. The buoyant density in cesium chloride gradient of virus specimens obtained on the 1st-2nd day of jaundice was represented by one peak of 1.30-1.35 g/cm3, whereas the material collected at late periods of the disease had heterogeneous buoyant density in zones from 1.24 to 1.43 g/cm3. The immune electron microscopic studies showed the fecal specimens collected early in the disease to be richer in virus than those collected at later intervals.