Step I Is anti-HDV protective?

[willow18]

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Robbin's Review says yes, Goljan says no. Tried looking it up and all I could find was this from the WHO.

Both humoral and cellular immunity are induced in patients infected with HDV.

These immune responses may provide protection from HDV re-infection, or simply modulate clinical symptoms. However, second cases of hepatitis D have not been reported.

Anti-HD antibodies do not always persist after acute infection is cleared. The serological evidence of past HDV infection is therefore not easy to demonstrate.

 

[pparmet]

Hep D is a defective virus, requiring co-infection with Hep B in order to be infectious. When new virions are formed, they are composed of Hep D nucleic acid surrounded by Hep B surface antigen. Thus anti-HBsAg is protective from Hep D infection, not anti-HepD, whose usefulness is limited mostly to diagnostic purposes.