Hepatitis E: current status and future perspectives

Supplement : Abstracts of the 2016 International Symposium on HIV and Emerging Infectious Diseases (ISHEID)

Journal of Virus Eradication 2016; 2 supplement 1

Abstract No : S1

Author(s):

Harry Dalton

University of Exeter Medical School, Truro, Cornwall, UK

Abstract :

Until recently, HEV was thought not to occur in developed countries. It is now clear that locally acquired HEV is common in many developed countries. HEV infection acquired in these areas differs from that in developing countries in a number of important aspects: it is caused by genotype 3 (and 4 in China and Japan); it mainly affects middle-aged/elderly males; it is zoonotic with a porcine primary host. Pig herds worldwide are infected with HEV genotype 3 and HEV has been found in the human food chain in a number of developed countries. However, the route of transmission is not fully understood, since most cases are not obviously associated with pigs/pig products. HEV can be transmitted by blood transfusion and surprisingly high numbers of asymptomatic blood donors are viraemic at the time of donation: Netherlands 1: 600, Germany 1:1200, England 1:2848.

Our understanding of the clinical phenotype of HEV infection in humans has undergone a sea-change in recent years. Previously, HEV was thought to cause only acute self-limiting hepatitis. However, HEV may cause persistent disease in the immunocompromised. Patients with chronic HEV infection have no symptoms, but some develop rapidly progressive liver cirrhosis. The full clinical spectrum of HEV is still emerging. HEV has important extra-hepatic manifestations, which deserve further investigation. For example, HEV can cause a wide range of neurological illness. In particular, very recent data suggests that Guillain–Barré syndrome and neuralgic amyotrophy are associated with locally acquired HEV in approximately 5% and 10% of cases, respectively.