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To determine the present-day specific clinical features of viral hepatitis A (HA) in children, observation on 447 children aged 1 year and 10 months to 14 years with verified HA monoinfection was carried out. At the season of 1993 essential differences were observed in the clinical picture of HA: the disease took a more severe course with the prevalence of medium-severe (59.3%) and severe (3.6%) forms of this infection, a tendency to a prolonged convalescence period and fermentative aggravations, an increase in the occurrence of cholestatic forms. One of the causes of this phenomenon may be attributed to changes in the properties of the infective agent.

The authors describe the results of the first experience gained with the use of recombinant alpha 2-interferon in children with acute viral hepatitis B. The drug was administered rectally in combination with antioxidants (tocopherol). The study was carried out by the double blind method with randomization and two control groups (given tocopherol alone or placebo alone). 73 children with acute viral hepatitis B were examined. The therapeutic combination reaferon plus tocopherol was established to favour more rapid elimination of dyspeptic and abdominal phenomena, to shorten the time of the liver and spleen size increase, duration of hyperfermentemia, to provide for an accelerated reduction of HBsAg titers, elimination of HBeAg and seroconversion, to stimulate alpha-interferon production by leukocytes, and to activate the system of mononuclear phagocytes.

Serological examinations of 1,200 children, hospitalized at the viral hepatitis department over a year, for the presence of hepatitis A (HA) and hepatitis B (HB) markers have revealed a 7% incidence rate of mixed HA and HB infections. Three variants of mixed infection have been established (true mixed infection, HA combined with asymptomatic HBsAg carriership, cross superinfection) and the relative significance of each of them has been determined. Mixed infection took an unfavorable course with a tendency to the prolongation of the pathological process eventuating in chronic hepatitis, especially in cases of true mixed infections (15.9%).