Mosquito Transmission of Hepatitis B. Review.

摘要

Epidemiologic surveys have shown that hepatitis B is a very prevalent infection, especially in developing countries. In many developing areas, more than 50% of the adult population may have serologic evidence of past infection, although clinical disease is much less prevalent. Percutaneous, sexual, and perinatal (vertical) transmission are the predominant modes of spread of this common infection. However, the high incidence of hepatitis B infection from early childhood in crowded and lower socioeconomic populations has not been completely explained by these common modes of transmission. To account for the high incidence of infection in these populations, other mechanisms of spread through 'close personal contract', including non-parenteral and occult parenteral routes of infection, have been postulated. Current evidence indicates that mosquitoes are not vectors of hepatitis B. Although initial field surveys indicated the possibility that mosquitoes could transmit hepatitis B, more direct evidence obtained from one transmission study indicated the opposite, that mosquitoes cannot transmit hepatitis B, even mechanically. Although there is no evidence that mosquitoes can act as vectors of hepatitis B, all potential sources of hepatitis B transmission deserve thorough evaluation in order to clarify our understanding of the epidemiology of hepatitis B in highly endemic tropical areas. Keywords: Hepatitis, Reprints. (AW)