Hepatitis delta infection in Italian patients: towards the end of the story?

Background: The endemicity of hepatitis delta virus infection in Italy has decreased in the last decades. Aim: To evaluate the current epidemiology of chronic delta infection in Italy and to compare the present findings with the corresponding figures from the previous studies. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 16 referral centres scattered all over the country in 2014. Results: Out of the 513 hepatitis B surface antigen-positive subjects enrolled, 61 (11.9%) were anti-delta positive, with a sex ratio (M/F) of 2.05. The majority (80.3%) of them was 50 years or older, while the proportion of subjects younger than 30 years of age was as low as 3.3%. No difference was detected by geogr…