Studies of hepatitis-associated antigen (HAA) in viral hepatitis in Greece have shown a high incidence of positive findings not only in serum hepatitis, but also in sporadic cases classified as "infectious" because of the absence of a history of parenteral inoculation.1-3 However, in most of these studies, no distinction between adults and children was made, and no cases of epidemic hepatitis were included.2,3 We believe it of interest, therefore, to present briefly additional findings of ours on the incidence of HAA in three major epidemiological cateogries of viral hepatitis ("serum," "epidemic," and "sporadic") and to compare the findings in adults with those in children.
Material and Methods
Two hundred twenty-nine patients with viral hepatitis were included; 132 were adults and 97 were children (under 14 years of age). Viral hepatitis was classified in three major epidemiological groups: (1) posttransfusion or syringe (50 cases), (2) "sporadic" without history of