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Published on: June 26, 2020
First report of a human autochthonous hepatitis E virus infection in Brazil
Debora Regina Lopes Dos Santos1, Lia Laura Lewis-Ximenez, Marcelle Figueira Marques da Silva
1Laboratório de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico em Virologia, IOC, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. santosdl@ioc.fiocruz.br
Background:
Sporadic acute hepatitis E cases occurring in non-endemic areas have been associated to genotypes 3 and 4 of hepatitis E virus. Several studies have demonstrated the relationship among human and animals strains, mostly pigs and deers, from respective areas characterizing zoonosis. Circulation of genotype 3 of HEV in Brazilian swine herds have already been demonstrated. Nevertheless, no confirmed human cases have been reported to date in Brazil.
Objectives:
A study was developed to attempt the identification of hepatitis E acute cases in Brazil.
Study Design:
A retrospective study carried out with 64 serum samples from patients with acute non-A-C hepatitis was performed to identify human cases of acute hepatitis E.
Results:
We could identify a confirmed case of acute hepatitis E. The patient seroconverted to hepatitis E virus-specific IgM and IgG antibody, HEV-RNA was amplified from serum, and the analysis of the sequence of a 242 nucleotide fragment from the ORF1 genome region classified the strain within genotype 3 and subgenotype 3b. Investigation of risk factors and results from phylogenetic analysis suggested a likely zoonotic origin for the infection.
Conclusions:
The first report of a human autochthonous in Brazil contributes with new information for hepatitis E epidemiology in Latin America and to considerate further broadly epidemiological studies.
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