Laboratory-based surveillance for hepatitis E virus infection, United States, 2005-2012.
To investigate characteristics of hepatitis E cases in the United States, we tested samples from persons seronegative for acute hepatitis A and B whose clinical specimens were referred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during June 2005-March 2012 for hepatitis E virus (HEV) testing. We found that 26 (17%) of 154 persons tested had hepatitis E. Of these, 15 had not recently traveled abroad (nontravelers), and 11 had (travelers). Compared with travelers, nontravelers were older (median 61 vs. 32 years of age) and more likely to be anicteric (53% vs. 8%); the nontraveler group also had fewer persons of South Asian ethnicity (7% vs. 73%) and more solid-organ transplant recipients (47% vs. 0). HEV genotype 3 was characterized from 8 nontravelers and genotypes 1 or 4 from 4 travelers. Clinicians should consider HEV infection in the differential diagnosis of hepatitis, regardless of patient travel history.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. jqd6@cdc.gov
Jan
J
Drobeniuc
Tracy
T
Greene-Montfort
Ngoc-Thao
NT
Le
Tonya R
TR
Mixson-Hayden
Lilia
L
Ganova-Raeva
Chen
C
Dong
Ryan T
RT
Novak
Umid M
UM
Sharapov
Rania A
RA
Tohme
Eyasu
E
Teshale
Saleem
S
Kamili
Chong-Gee
CG
Teo
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring; D005260:Female; D005814:Genes, Viral; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010802:Phylogeny; D015995:Prevalence; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014195:Travel; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D012367:RNA, Viral