Seroepidemiology of hepatitis E virus infection among preschool children in Taiwan

✍ Scribed by Ding-Bang Lin; Jye-Bin Lin; Shiuan-Chih Chen; Chi-Chiang Yang; Wen-Kang Chen; Chien-Jen Chen

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 74 KB
• Volume: 74
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.20193

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

In order to study the seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection among preschool children in Taiwan, a community‐based survey was carried out in 54 kindergartens in 10 urban areas, 10 rural areas, and 2 aboriginal areas randomly selected through stratified sampling. Serum specimens of 2,538 preschool children were screened for HEV antibodies (anti‐HEV) by a commercially available enzyme immunoassay. The odd ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated through multiple logistic regression analysis. A total of 86 children were anti‐HEV seropositive, giving a prevalence of 3.4%. The prevalence of anti‐HEV was 3.9% (19 of 484) among aboriginal children, a significantly increased seroprevalence compared with that among children who lived in urban areas (OR = 1.68; 95% CI = 1.56–2.95; P < 0.05). Females had a higher anti‐HEV seroprevalence than the males (OR = 1.55; 95% CI = 1.14–2.54; P < 0.05). Rates of anti‐HEV antibody increased with age in aboriginal areas (χ^2^ for trend = 5.59, P = 0.02), but decreased with age in non‐aboriginal areas. The poor water supply system, poor sewage disposal, exposure to wild animals, and other environmental conditions in the aboriginal areas might have played a role in their infection with HEV in Taiwan. J. Med. Virol. 74:414–418, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.