Seroprevalence of Anti-Hepatitis E Virus Antibodies among Patients from a Tertiary Hospital from Northeast Romania

Autor: Ioana Florina Mihai, Dragos Anita, Olivia Simona Dorneanu, Catalina Mihaela Luca, Carmen Doina Manciuc, Cristian Constantin Budacu, Florin Manuel Roșu, Gheorghe Savuta, Adriana Anita, Andrei Vâţă
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Medicina, Vol 58, Iss 8, p 1020 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1648-9144
1010-660X
96956925
DOI: 10.3390/medicina58081020
Popis: Background and Objectives. Being an enterically transmitted pathogen with a growing prevalence in developed countries, hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection remains an underdiagnosed disease in Eastern Europe. As far as Romania is concerned, only a few studies address this issue. Our goal was to estimate the prevalence of serum anti-HEV IgA/IgM/IgG antibodies in a group of patients admitted to the Clinical Hospital for Infectious Diseases “St. Parascheva” Iasi. Materials and Methods. The cross-sectional study consisted of enrollment of 98 patients admitted to the clinic for COVID-19 over a period of three months in 2020. Results. The median age in our study was 73 years, with an equal gender ratio and with a predominance of people from the urban environment (75%). The overall HEV antibody seroprevalence was 12.2%. The main risk factors associated with HEV infection were consumption of water from unsafe sources (58.3% HEV-positive patients vs. 26.7% HEV-negative patients, p = 0.026) and improperly cooked meat (58.3% HEV-positive patients vs. 23.2% HEV-negative patients, p = 0.01). Zoonotic transmission was an important criterion in our study, with patients reporting contact with pigs, poultry, rats, or other farms animals, but no significant differences were found between HEV antibody positive and negative groups. Conclusions. The seroprevalence rate of HEV antibodies was similar to other previous reports from our area but higher than in most European countries. The fact that HEV antibodies were detected in patients without identifiable risk factors for hepatitis E is evidence of subclinical infection as a silent threat.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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