Detailed screening of the patients and staff in a unit specializing in liver disease was carried out over a year to ascertain whether transmission of the serum hepatitis virus was occurring and whether the situation was comparable in any way to that found in a Renal Haemodialysis Unit. Of the 154 patients with liver disease tested on admission, 6% were found to have Australia antigen in the serum and throughout the year there were rarely less than two patients in the ward at any one time with positive serum. No instances of clinical hepatitis were detected in the other patients following their stay in the ward or in their attendant medical, nursing and lay staff. Six staff members were found to have Australia antigen in their serum. In four of these, all nurses, it was present in the first sample tested and so the infection may have been acquired earlier. Temporary elevations in both plasma bilirubin and serum aspartate aminotransferase levels were found in another five staff members whose serum was negative for Australia antigen and who clinically were well. In a further eight and apparently healthy staff members, an isolated but persistent elevation of the plasma bilirubin was noted. In both groups these changes could represent the spread of subclinical infectious hepatitis and it is recommended that in units dealing with ‘liver patients’ not only should considerable care be taken during diagnostic and therapeutic procedures but the medical and nursing staff should be screened at regular intervals.

The goal of this research is to develop molecular imprinted polymers (MIP) for biomimetic recognition of viruses. Our experimental results indicate that hydrogels can be produced, which can specifically and selectively bind recombinant baculoviruses. Although it is expected that imprinted cavities will be distorted due to the swelling of the hydrogel in water, our experiments show that even the swollen gels exhibit remarkable affinity toward recombinant baculovirus. The proposed methodologies for the synthesis and characterization of MIPs thus offer exciting avenues for the development of virus recognition techniques. The virus MIPs must function in aqueous environments. Our approach employs a more flexible non-covalent imprinting method, starting from a readily available polyamine polymer, and both MIP synthesis and testing are performed in aqueous solutions. The development of a virus imprinted MIP, which would apply to the identification, classification, and removal of viruses. This is currently a very difficult task, but the need is widespread in diverse sectors, including national security, human and animal health, crop protection, and biologics production. The development of general methods using MIPs capable of specific recognition of biological analytes would have an enormous value in medicine and bioanalytics.