Australia Antigen and Hepatitis

IN 1963, during the course of a systematic study of variation in human serum constituents, an unusual antibody was found in the serum of a patient with hemophilia who had received many transfusions.1 In the initial experiments, the antibody was found to react with the serum of an Australian aborigine but not with a variety of serums from other people included in the panel. It was therefore called Australia antigen (abbreviated Au[1]). Recently, investigators have used a series of additional names for Australia antigen (that is, hepatitis antigen, SH antigen and hepatitis-associated antigen). By 1966 our studies showed that Au(l) . . .