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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Virology. Nov 12, 2015; 4(4): 323-342
Published online Nov 12, 2015. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v4.i4.323
Update on hepatitis B and C virus diagnosis
Livia Melo Villar, Helena Medina Cruz, Jakeline Ribeiro Barbosa, Cristianne Sousa Bezerra, Moyra Machado Portilho, Letícia de Paula Scalioni
Livia Melo Villar, Helena Medina Cruz, Jakeline Ribeiro Barbosa, Cristianne Sousa Bezerra, Moyra Machado Portilho, Letícia de Paula Scalioni, Viral Hepatitis Laboratory, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro 21041-210, Brazil
Author contributions: Villar LM designed the outline and coordinated the writing of the paper; Cruz HM, Barbosa JR, Bezerra CS, Portilho MM and de Paula Scalioni L performed data acquisition and writing; Cruz HM, Barbosa JR, Portilho MM and de Paula Scalioni L prepared the tables.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other coauthors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Livia Melo Villar, PhD, Technologist, Viral Hepatitis Laboratory, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Av. Brasil, 4365, Rio de Janeiro 21041-210, Brazil. lvillar@ioc.fiocruz.br
Telephone: +55-21-25621918 Fax: +55-21-22706397
Received: June 3, 2015
Peer-review started: June 4, 2015
First decision: August 8, 2015
Revised: September 25, 2015
Accepted: October 23, 2015
Article in press: October 27, 2015
Published online: November 12, 2015
Processing time: 163 Days and 4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Reliable methods for diagnosing hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are essential to reduce the burden of these infections. Serological and molecular assays are used to identify acute and chronic cases of infection. In this article, the current knowledge about HBV and HCV diagnosis is updated and emphased the characteristics of each techniques to be useful to most laboratory personnel.