Chronic liver diseases in intertropical Africa are frequent and often cryptogenetic. With respect to the prevalence of Australia antigen (Au Ag) in different geographic regions we have studied in this preliminary work Au Ag frequency among various African populations, liver function and histological features; and antibodies of possible value in hepatology.
Material and Patients
Serum samples were obtained from two groups of subjects: (1) donors from various geographic origins: Abidjan (police school), Dakar (blood bank), and Timbuktu (military camp); and (2) patients from Abidjan (Treichville hospital) for whom we have no clinical information and from Paris (Claude Bernard Hospital). This later group is composed of male migrant workers from the same area of Mali; 96% are Sarakolle. The subjects were 20 to 35 years of age and were in the hospital for extra-hepatic manifestations (parasitosis or tuberculosis or both). Only one patient had had hepatitis in infancy, and three had