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Updated: Feb 3, 2026

A Protocol for Analyzing Hepatitis C Virus Replication
Published on: June 26, 2014
A new hepatitis E virus genotype 2 strain identified from an outbreak in Nigeria, 2017
Bo Wang1, Olusola Anuoluwapo Akanbi1, Dominik Harms1
1Division of Viral Gastroenteritis and Hepatitis Pathogens and Enteroviruses, Department of Infectious Diseases, Robert Koch Institute, 13353, Berlin, Germany.
Background:
In 2017 the Nigerian Ministry of Health notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of an outbreak of hepatitis E located in the north-east region of the country with 146 cases with 2 deaths. The analysis of the hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotypes responsible for the outbreak revealed the predominance of HEV genotypes 1 (HEV-1) and 2 (HEV-2). Molecular data of HEV-2 genomes are limited; therefore we characterized a HEV-2 strain of the outbreak in more detail.
Finding:
The full-length genome sequence of an HEV-2 strain (NG/17-0500) from the outbreak was amplified using newly designed consensus primers. Comparison with other HEV complete genome sequences, including the only HEV-2 strain (Mex-14) with available complete genome sequences and the availability of data of partial HEV-2 sequences from Sub-Saharan Africa, suggests that NG/17-0500 belongs to HEV subtype 2b (HEV-2b).
Conclusions:
We identified a novel HEV-2b strain from Sub-Saharan Africa, which is the second complete HEV-2 sequence to date, whose natural history and epidemiology merit further investigation.
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