Blood-Borne Non-A, Non-B Hepatitis: Lack of Infectivity of Feces from Chimpanzees Infected with a Strain Producing Cytoplasmic Tubular Alterations

Fecal and serum samples from a chimpanzee with acute-phase, blood-borne non-A, non-B hepatitis were administered to four chimpanzees. Fecal material given either in-travenously or orally did not result in abnormal levels of alanine aminotransferase or the occurrence of ultrastructural alterations in hepatocellular cytoplasm characteristic of non-A, non-B hepatitis during a one-year period of follow-up. Definite non-A, non-B hepatitis was later demonstrated in two of these animals four weeks after inoculation of acute-phase serum. Thus, feces do not appear to transmit this human strain of blood-borne non-A, non-B hepatitis. The epidemiology of blood-borne non-A, non-B (NANB) hepatitis seen in Europe and North America appears similar to that of hepatitis B, al-though definitive studies await an immunologic assay. There are several lines of evidence suggest-ing that this virus(es) is not transmitted by the fecal-oral route. (1) Secondary cases have not bee