International collaborative survey on epidemiology of hepatitis E virus in 11 countries.
We conducted seroepidemiological studies on antibody prevalence to hepatitis E virus (HEV) in 5,233 sera from 11 countries to ascertain the present state of HEV infection on a global basis. The prevalence of anti-HEV IgG increased with age in these tested countries, but the rate of antibody positivity was over 20% in the 16-30 year-old group in most of the participating countries, except for Japan, the USA, and Spain. Of patients with acute hepatitis of unknown etiology from Nepal, 56% (14/25) were positive for the IgM class of anti-HEV antibody. In addition, HEV RNAs in the serum from 3 Nepali patients who had the IgM antibody were detected by nested PCR and all of the HEV genes isolated belonged to genotype 1. Our results indicate that HEV is spreading worldwide, not only in developing countries, but also in more industrialized countries than previously thought.
Abe
Kenji
K
Department of Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan. kenjiabe@nih.go.jp
Li
Tian-Cheng
TC
Ding
Xin
X
Win
Khin Maung
KM
Shrestha
Pradeep Krishna
PK
Quang
Vo Xuan
VX
Ngoc
Trinh Thi
TT
Taltavull
Teresa Casanovas
TC
Smirnov
Andrei V
AV
Uchaikin
Vasily F
VF
Luengrojanakul
Pairoj
P
Gu
Hongxi
H
El-Zayadi
Abdel Rahman
AR
Prince
Alfred M
AM
Kikuchi
Kaoru
K
Masaki
Naohiko
N
Inui
Ayano
A
Sata
Tetsutaro
T
Takeda
Naokazu
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001208:Asia / Q000453:epidemiology; D001838:Bolivia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004534:Egypt / Q000453:epidemiology; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006306:Health Surveys; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007391:International Cooperation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies