Acute Hepatitis E in the US Today Occurs in Diverse Patient Populations: Case Reports

Hepatitis E has long been thought of as an infection confined to the developing world. However, there has been an increased incidence of locally acquired cases in developed countries especially in transplant patients. Our first case is a 56-year-old Caucasian female post-heart transplant patient who presented with diarrhea and abdominal pain. She was found to be acutely infected with hepatitis E and progressed to stage 3 liver fibrosis. Our second patient was an otherwise healthy 76-year-old Vietnamese female who presented with abdominal pain, jaundice and fatigue. She was diagnosed with acute hepatitis E complicated by acute renal failure. There have only been a few reported cases of acute hepatitis E complicated by renal failure.