Edited by Steven Specter. 402 pp. Totowa, N.J., Humana Press, 1999. $99.50. ISBN 0-89603-424-0.
Jaundice was recognized as a disease as long ago as the fifthcentury b.c., and its infectious nature was suspected as earlyas the eighth century a.d. Large epidemics of hepatitis, firstreported in the Middle Ages, have continued to occur into the20th century during times of war, famine, or other catastrophicevents. In the 1930s and 1940s, the cause of hepatitis was establishedand two forms of the disease — infectious hepatitis (hepatitisA) and serum hepatitis (hepatitis B) — were distinguished.It was, however, the discovery in the mid-1960s of an antigenspecific to hepatitis B virus, . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Previous
