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World J Hepatol. Oct 8, 2015; 7(22): 2389-2395
Published online Oct 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i22.2389
Hepatitis delta virus: Making the point from virus isolation up to 2014
Raffaella Romeo, Riccardo Perbellini
Raffaella Romeo, Riccardo Perbellini, 1st Division of Gastroenterology, IRCCS Fondazione Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, University of Milan, 20122 Milano, Italy
Author contributions: Romeo R performed the literature search, data analysis, writing of the paper, created the figures; Perbellini R contributed to data analysis and manuscript revision.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Raffaella Romeo, MD, PhD, 1st Division of Gastroenterology, IRCCS Fondazione Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, University of Milan, via F. Sforza, 35, 20122 Milan, Italy. raffaella.romeo@policlinico.mi.it
Telephone: +39-2-55035432 Fax: +39-2-50320379
Received: January 31, 2015
Peer-review started: February 2, 2015
First decision: May 13, 2015
Revised: September 6, 2015
Accepted: September 16, 2015
Article in press: September 18, 2015
Published online: October 8, 2015
Processing time: 244 Days and 7.5 Hours
Abstract

Chronic infection with hepatitis delta virus (HDV) has lately regained clinical importance because of the recent evidence of increasing prevalence in several European countries, due to immigration from highly endemic areas. HDV requires the mandatory presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) for propagation to hepatocytes. It is transmitted by the same routes of HBV and it can be acquired either by co-infection (simultaneous transmission of the two viruses) or super-infection (acquisition of HDV by an already chronic carrier of HBV). As a consequence, every HBV carrier is potentially at risk for HDV superinfection. Since the clinical course of super-infection can be severe, early diagnosis of HDV infection is necessary.

Keywords: Hepatitis delta virus; Epidemiology; Natural history; Treatment

Core tip: The re-appearance of hepatitis delta virus infection in developed Countries has risen new interest on one of the most severe forms of viral hepatitis in humans. The lack of research on the subject for about two decades is responsible for the present unavailability of specific and efficient antiviral treatments against hepatitis delta virus. This review focuses on what is known up today and what still needs to be done.