Hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg): an alternative to HBV DNA to assess treatment eligibility in Africa

• Published in: Clinical infectious diseases
• Main Authors: Shimakawa, Yusuke, Ndow, Gibril, Njie, Ramou, Freeya Njai, Harr, Takahashi, Kazuaki, Akbar, Mohammad Fazle, Cohen, Damien, Nayagam, Shevanthi, Jeng, Adam, Ceesay, Amie, Sanneh, Bakary, Baldeh, Ignatius, Imaizumi, Masayasu, Moriyama, Kazushige, Aoyagi, Katsumi, d'Alessandro, Umberto, Mishiro, Shunji, Chemin, Isabelle, Mendy, Maimuna, Thursz, Mark R., Lemoine, Maud
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press (OUP) 17.05.2019
• Subjects: Human health and pathology; Infectious diseases; Life Sciences; Microbiology and Parasitology; Virology; Hepatitis B core-related antigen; Africa; validation studies; diagnostic test; sensitivity and specificity

BackgroundTo eliminate hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, it is essential to scale up testing and treatment. However, conventional tools to assess treatment eligibility, particularly nucleic acid testing (NAT) to quantify HBV DNA, are hardly available and affordable in resource-limited countries. We...