Inherited IL-18BP deficiency in two Egyptian siblings with fulminant viral hepatitis.

An inherited deficiency of IL-18BP, a soluble antagonist of IL-18, was previously reported in an otherwise healthy Algerian patient who died of fulminant viral hepatitis A at the age of 11 years. We describe here an Egyptian family with two siblings who died at the ages of two years and seven months of fulminant viral hepatitis (FVH) following infection with hepatitis A virus.