Course of HEV viremia and anti-HEV IgM/IgG response in asymptomatic blood donors

Hepatitis E is an infectious liver disease caused by the hepatitis E virus (HEV), a RNA virus of the family Hepeviridae (genus Hepevirus) [1]. Globally, an estimated 20 million HEV infections occur every year, causing approximately 70,000 deaths [2]. A recent meta-analysis found anti-HEV sero-prevalence rates ranging from 0.6% to 52.5% in different European countries [3]. In Germany 16.8% of the general population have been found to be anti-HEV IgG seropositive and 0.08% to 0.12% blood donations have been found to be HEV-RNA positive [4 –7].
Source: Journal of Clinical Virology - Category: Virology Authors: Source Type: research