Table 5. Contrasting features between induction of chronic infection and induction of fulminant hepatitis.

	Chronic infection	Fulminant hepatitis
Often occurs in	Infants	Adults
Mutations involved	None	Precore; core promoter
Genotype involved	C>B; A>D; A>C>B	B>C; D>A
HBeAg expression	High	Negative (precore mutation)
Replication capacity	Low (wild-type virus)	High (core promoter mutations)