NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE

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Hepatitis B Virus Infection Natural History and Clinical Consequences
Don Ganem, M.D., and Alfred M. Prince, M.D.
In the past 10 years, remarkable strides have been made in the understanding of the natural history and pathogenesis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. In this article we will review these advances, with particular reference to the implications for antiviral therapy. History Clinical and epidemiologic studies began to differentiate among various types of acute hepatitis in the decades after World War II. The groundbreaking studies of Krugman and colleagues in 1967 firmly established the existence of at least two types of hepatitis, 1one of which (then called serum hepatitis, and now called hepatitis B) was parenterally transmitted. Links to . . .