Raymond S. Koff George Y. Wu
Forty years ago, just prior to the discovery of the hepatitis B surface
antigen, the concept that chronic liver disease could be a sequel to infection
by any agent of acute viral hepatitis was controversial and hotly debated. With
the development of specific and sensitive serologic and virologic markers of
infection by the bloodborne and enterically transmitted hepatitis viruses, the
linkage of the former agents with chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, end-stage liver
disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma was established beyond doubt