key: cord-0686875-hf4d5zi4 authors: Hedley-Whyte, John; Milamed, Debra R. title: Hepatitis B: Prevalence, Hope date: 2019-04-27 journal: Ulster Med J DOI: nan sha: 2a5b2e11c10d35b22cb2965f62ccc79e61eeb77b doc_id: 686875 cord_uid: hf4d5zi4 nan In the transcript of his Nobel Oration for the 1976 Award in Physiology or Medicine, Baruch S. Blumberg refers to David Surrey Dane nine times. 1 Dane (1923 Dane ( -1998 32 . Dane and his Belfast coworkers used specimens negatively stained with "4% phosphotungstic acid at pH 6.5 and applied to formvar/carbon grids before examination in an A.E.I. EM 801 electron microscope" 3 . Hepatitis B virus was found by Dane to be a particle 42 nm in diameter with DNA and DNA polymerase 3,32 , later eponymously named the "Dane particle" 32 . Dane wrote that "I never discovered whether the person who originally referred to it this way was a well-wisher who thought we were right or someone who hoped we were wrong" 32 . In 1978, 19 Manx shearwaters sick with puffinosis were transported live to Oxford from Skomer and Skokholm islands. A homogenate from each freshly decapitated bird was injected separately into Oxford Dunn Pathology mice randomly inbred since 1953. One to 3 day old suckling mice were injected intracerebrally and subcutaneously. Eight to 11 day old fertile hens' eggs were injected as also were various cell cultures. Two days after inoculation, two of the mice showed clinical signs of infection, one with paralysis. Sera from the Manx shearwaters were not collected after inoculation due to "difficulties keeping the birds" in Oxford 26 . The virus that was isolated differed from that found in 1948 by Stoker 33 . Probably the coronavirus at Oxford they discovered was from an Oxford Dunn School of Pathology mouse. Electron microscopy was non-diagnostic of puffinosis. Nuttal and Harrap, whose work was funded by the National Environment Research Council (NERC), stated "We are studying puffinosis because, unlike many epizootics in wild animal populations detailed investigation is possible" 26 After I went down from Cambridge, Stoker, for decades would send me, his "perpetual student", a postcard after I had published in the Scientific or Medical Literature. Nearly all messages were short. "Congratulations." "Surprising but believable". "Talk to Aage Bohr". Re: our ICU and Thomas Huckle-"Do it" 43, 44 . In Each year an estimated 887,000 humans are killed by hepatitis B 53 ; how many thousands of non-humans we do not know. Hepatitis B has solely infected humans and other hominidae and simian species for at least the last 7,000 years 54, 55 . Currently hepatitis B infects 257 million people worldwide 53, 56 . The "Northern Ireland Hepatitis B and C Managed Clinical Network" has reported that Northern Ireland is a "very low prevalence country" for hepatitis B 57 . Much progress has been made in vaccination of healthcare workers, as well as mothers and their offspring 58, 59 . Investigators from the Regional Virus Laboratory at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, with colleagues from the Liver Unit, Department of Genitourinary Medicine and HIV and the Public Health Agency of Northern Ireland have recently suggested a higher than expected rate of progression from acute to chronic hepatitis B among persons aged 50 and over in Northern Ireland 60 . Patients co-infected with HIV show hepatitis B chronicity rates as much as six times higher than hepatitis B patients who are HIV seronegative. While such co-infection is relatively rare in Northern Ireland, the overall aging of the population amid higher hepatitis B chronicity rates emphasizes the importance of vaccination and provision of accurate information to patients. 60 "This plague has come upon us by infection and will spread still further" 61 † . Before you travel to foreign parts ascertain your vaccination status 56 . † "...dedit hanc contagio labem et dabit in plures…" (Juvenal, Satvra II, 78-9). UMJ is an open access publication of the Ulster Medical Society (http://www.ums.ac.uk). The Ulster Medical Society grants to all users on the basis of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence the right to alter or build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creation is licensed under identical terms. Australia antigen and the biology of hepatitis B December13, 1976. The Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize The hunt for a killer virus Virus-like particles in serum of patients with Australia-antigen-associated hepatitis Wolf Szmuness is dead at 63: An epidemiologist and researcher Hepatitis B vaccine: demonstration of efficacy in a controlled clinical trial in a high-risk population in the United States Study design for a hepatitis B vaccine trial Australia antigen and antibody among patients attending a clinic for sexually transmitted diseases Second Supplement to the London Gazette of Tuesday, the 13 th of Behind the lines in occupied France The SAS at war: The Special Air Service Regiment 1941-1945 Manhattan Project Veteran, Military Veteran A Troop Carrier Squadron's War from Normandy to the Rhine. Chapter 8. Flying. Plane, pilots and crew The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Montgomery of Alamein The Royal Ulster Rifles. Second Supplement to the London Gazette of Friday, the 20 th of Bar to the Distinguished Service Order: Captain (temporary Major) Supplement to the London Gazette of Tuesday, the 19 th of Supplement to the London Gazette of Tuesday, the 27 th of 83706), 1st Special Air Services Regiment, Army Air Corps (Belfast David Surrey Dane 1923-1998 Obituary Bird club. The Carthusian A disease of Manx shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus) Disease of shearwaters A disease of Manx shearwaters: further observations in the field Studies on the causative agent of an epizootic amongst Manx shearwaters (Puffinus p. puffinus) Isolation of a coronavirus during studies on puffinosis. A disease of the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) G8. Available from The introduction of ether anaesthesia to Great Britain. 1. How the news was carried from On 9 th The Virus Reference Laboratory UMJ is an open access publication of the Ulster Medical Society The Ulster Medical Society grants to all users on the basis of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial This Week's Citation Classic. Current Contents Life Sciences Puffinosis: a virus epizootic of the Manx shearwater, Puffinus p. puffinus Director of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund laboratories who turned the ICRF into a worldrenowned organization. The Guardian Professor Sir Michael Stoker: Towering figure in cancer research. Independent Sir Michael Stoker 1918-2013. Microbiology Society Obituary Michael Stoker 1918-2013 Sir) Stoker. R Coll Physicians: Munk's Roll Alfred Nobel Memorial Foundation, Nobel Media AB. Nobelprize.org. The Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize My" Armed Forces and their Health Disaster at Quetta. In: The Central Blue: The Autobiography of Sir John Slessor, Marshall of the RAF Robbins FC The cultivation of the poliomyelitis viruses in tissue culture Applied respiratory physiology and management of cerebral edema, infection and hemorrhage. Respiratory management and prognosis of viral infections of the central nervous system Impaired oxygenation in surgical patients during general anesthesia with controlled ventilation. A concept of atelectasis Intra-abdominal surgery and anesthesia management: Classic Papers Revisited Our blood your money Knighted 2 nd December1980 Effects of tumour viruses on cell growth Hepatocytes and scatter factor Hepatocyte growth factor-scatter factor: mitogen, motogen and met Hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF), the c-met receptor and the behavior of epithelial cells Geneva: WHO Neolithic and medieval virus genomes reveal complex evolution of Hepatitis B. eLife Ancient hepatitis B viruses from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period High Value Care Task Force of the American College of Physicians and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hepatitis B vaccination, screening and linkage to care: Best practice advice from the American College of Physicians and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention NI Regional Hepatitis B & C Managed Clinical Network Annual Report Hepatitis B immunisation in Northern Ireland: an epidemiological and economic analysis Sharp truth: health care workers remain at risk of bloodborne infection Progression from acute to chronic hepatitis B is more common in older adults Oxford: Oxford Classical Texts The authors wish to thank Ms. Anna Sander, Archivist and Curator of Manuscripts, and Professor Seamus Perry, Balliol College Oxford, for assistance with permission to reproduce the portrait of Baruch S. Blumberg