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... chronic infections and is a major factor in the eventual development of liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. The viral genome consists of partially double stranded circular DNA. The HBV genome has four genes - pol, env, precore and X that respectively encode the viral DNA polymerase, envelope protein, precore protein and protein X (Worman, H.J., 1999). Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a positive stranded RNA virus, classified as family Flaviviridae. The genome encodes a core protein, 2 envelope glycoproteins and several non-structural proteins (Brooks et al., 2001). Hepatitis D virus (HDV) is referred to as Delta Hepatitis. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a single stranded RNA virus that occurs in endemic form in developing countries where water supplies are sometimes faecally contaminated. Hepatitis G virus (HGV) has recently been discovered to be a member of the Flaviviridae family (Jawetz et al., 2001). The hepatitis viruses are not directly cytopathic to the ...