Prevalence and risk factors for HEV infection in pregnant women.
BACKGROUND
Hepatitis E is an infectious viral disease with clinical and morphological features of acute hepatitis, clinically similar to other forms of acute viral hepatitis except in pregnant women, in whom the illness is particularly severe and has a high mortality rate. The present study was conducted in western Turkey to investigate the prevalence and risk factors for HEV infection in pregnant women.


METHODS
The data for the study were acquired from health centers in urban and rural areas of Aydin province, Turkey. The study design was cross-sectional. Multistage sampling was used to select the study group. Samples were tested for anti-HEV IgG by commercial ELISA test.


RESULTS
A total of 386 pregnant women were included in the study. Antibodies against HEV were detected in 27 of the 386 pregnant women (7.0%). The prevalence of HEV seropositivity was significantly lower (2.5%) in women with a higher education level when compared to women with a lower education level (9.7%) (p=0.023). No significant differences were identified between seropositive and seronegative women in terms of age, source of water supply and place of residence.


CONCLUSIONS
According to our results, education seems to be the only factor affecting the prevalence of HEV infection in pregnant women. The prevalence rate we found was similar to the results obtained in previous community-based studies conducted in western Turkey.
Oncu
Serkan
S
Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Adnan Menderes University, 09100 Aydin, Turkey. serkanoncu@hotmail.com
Oncu
Selcen
S
Okyay
Pinar
P
Ertug
Sema
S
Sakarya
Serhan
S
D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016752:Hepatitis E virus; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology
D000914:Antibodies, Viral