Hepatitis E Virus

Abstract

Hepatitis E is a viral disease that presents as acute hepatitis in humans. The etiological agent is hepatitis E virus (HEV), rst identied in the early 1980s.1 The disease is an important public health issue in developing countries where it is frequently epidemic. Industrialized countries were previously thought to be free from HEV, with a limited number of cases reported only in people who had traveled to endemic areas. However, more recent studies have documented an increasing number of sporadic cases in developed areas, among patients who had no history of travelling to countries endemic for hepatitis E. Furthermore, a high anti-HEV seroprevalence has been detected among healthy individuals in nonendemic countries.