Chronic hepatitis B antigenaemia in bilharzial patients treated with Praziquantel.

One hundred and fifty two bilharzial patients together with one hundred and eighty four individuals as free controls were tested for HBsAg using ELISA technique. 6.6% of the former were carriers compared to only 2.2% in the later. It was found that past history of antibilharzial therapy, jaundice and presence of hepatosplenomegaly increased the risk of contracting HB virus infection. Praziquantel therapy showed 60% parasitological cure rate and 90 reduction in the mean egg count of bilharzial carriers of HBV infection. It improved both simple and early hepato-intestinal schistosomiasis as 5 out of 10 HBV carriers became free either from schistosoma ova or HBsAg after 6 months of treatment. In this work all chronic bilharzial carriers (5) had hepatosplenomegaly, 1 patient showed parasitological cure after treatment and the other four patients had a reduction in the mean egg count denoting the failure of praziquantel in improving their immunologic status and thus still HBsAg carriers.