HEPATITIS–B VIRUS INFECTION;

Objective: To describe the clinical presentations of hepatitis B virus infectionin children. Methodology: Children presenting with symptoms of liver diseases and otherdiseases who were found to be HBsAg positive by screening or ELISA method were enrolled.Children suffering from thalassemia, hemophilia and hemolytic anemia, which need multipletransfusions, were excluded. On the basis of history, examination and investigations the clinicalpresentation of the patient was categorized. Basic demographic data, relevant clinical history,physical examination, lab investigations and clinical presentations category were entered in thepredesigned proforma. As this is the descriptive study, no hypothesis were required. Design:Descriptive case series. Setting: Paediatric unit-2 NishtarHospital Multan. Period: 16th May2012 to 15th November 2012. Results: Study results consist of relative frequencies of differentclinical presentations of HBsAg positive patients. Fifty children who were HBsAg positive wereenrolled in a six month period. Out of 50 patients, 21 (42%) were of hepatic encephalopathy,14 (28%) were with acute hepatitis, 12 (24%) were cirrhosis, 2 (4%) were asymptomatic carrierand 1 (2%) was presented with chronic hepatitis B. There were 40 (80%) males and 10 (20%)females. The overall male to female ratio was 4:1. Conclusions: Most common presentationwas hepatic encephalopathy which has a very bad prognosis, next comes the acute hepatitisand then cirrhosis. There is another inference that males are more and severely affected byhepatitis-B virus infection.