Genetic heterogeneity of hepatitis E virus in Darfur, Sudan, and neighboring Chad.
The within-outbreak diversity of hepatitis E virus (HEV) was studied during the outbreak of hepatitis E that occurred in Sudan in 2004. Specimens were collected from internally displaced persons living in a Sudanese refugee camp and two camps implanted in Chad. A comparison of the sequences in the ORF2 region of 23 Sudanese isolates and five HEV samples from the two Chadian camps displayed a high similarity (>99.7%) to strains belonging to Genotype 1. But four isolates collected in one of the Chadian camps were close to Genotype 2. Circulation of divergent strains argues for possible multiple sources of infection.
Nicand
Elisabeth
E
National Reference Centre for Hepatitis E, Teaching Military Hospital Val de Grâce, Paris, France. en.biol-vdg@filnet.fr
Armstrong
Gregory L
GL
Enouf
Vincent
V
Guthmann
Jean Paul
JP
Guerin
Jean-Philippe
JP
Caron
Mélanie
M
Nizou
Jacques Yves
JY
Andraghetti
Roberta
R
D002596:Chad / Q000453:epidemiology; D005784:Gene Amplification; D018740:Genetic Heterogeneity; D016679:Genome, Viral; D005838:Genotype; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017421:Sequence Analysis; D013397:Sudan / Q000453:epidemiology