Seroepidemiology of hepatitis E virus in patients with non-A, non-B, non-C hepatitis in Hungary

✍ Scribed by Annika Haagsman; Gábor Reuter; Erwin Duizer; Gyuláné Nagy; Tineke Herremans; Marion Koopmans; György Szücs

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 82 KB
• Volume: 79
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.20869

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Many cases of acute hepatitis remain undiagnosed and the hepatitis E virus (HEV) is emerging in industrialized countries. The aim of this study was to assess the role HEV as causative agent in acute non‐A, non‐B, and non‐C hepatitis patients in Hungary. 10.5% of the 264 acute non‐A, non‐B, and non‐C hepatitis patients tested had anti‐HEV IgG and 1.9% had anti‐HEV IgM as tested by ELISA. After confirmation by Western blot 6.1% of the acute non‐A, non‐B, and non‐C hepatitis patients had anti‐HEV IgG antibodies only and 1.1% of the patients had both IgG and IgM. All 19 patients that were positive for anti‐HEV IgG and/or IgM tested negative for HEV RNA by PCR. Only a small proportion of the acute hepatitis cases in the southwest of Hungary are assumed to be attributed to HEV infection, however, hepatitis E should be considered along with hepatitis A, B, and C in the diagnosis of acute hepatitis. J. Med. Virol. 79:927–930, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.