Drug Abuse and Viral Hepatitis in Marines

Sporadic viral hepatitis occurred at Camp Lejeune, NC in 1970. One hundred eight patients were studied and 48 (44%) had sera positive for hepatitis-associated antigen (HAA), 23 of whom admitted to repeated parenteral drug abuse. This history was not useful in distinguishing viral types since 29 patients with HAA-negative sera also used drugs parenterally. All patients with HAA-positive sera were of the same serological subgroup (Y) and had a more severe disease than those with HAA-negative sera in terms of hospitalization time and liver-function tests. A semiquantitative measure of HAA helped distinguish between apparently transient and relatively persistent carriers. It is likely that viral hepatitis is becoming endemic on the military base, and that the HAA-positive viral pool is increasing because of drug abuse.