[Epidemiological characteristics and risk factors of hepatitis E in Taiyuan]

We investigated epidemiologically the risk factors of hepatitis E in Taiyuan. Of 385 patients with acute viral hepatitis collected, 191 (49.61%) were serologically identified to have hepatitis A, 104(27.01%) HB, 34 (8.80%) HE, 20 (5.19%) HC and 22 (5.72%) unidentified types. The male to female ratio of HE as 6.5 : 1. The median age of occurrence in the patients with HE was 38.5 years. One of three pregnant women with HE developed premature labor with fetal wastage. Case-control study was conducted in 70 patients with HE and 70 controls. The controls were selected from other subjects with no histories of hepatitis and matched by age and sex. The data were dealed with single factor analysis and conditional logistic regression analysis. The results showed that eating meals in resturants (OR 2.01, 95% CL 1.28-3.15), contacting with hepatitis case (OR 6.04, 95% CL 1.24-29.29), ingesting dirty drink (OR 2.16, 95% CL 2.05-2.26) are the major risk factors for HE.