Hepatitis E virus infection in patients on dialysis and in solid organ transplant recipients in Argentina: exploring associated risk factors

PISANO MB; BALDERRAMO D; MARTÍNEZ WASSAF M; LOTTO M; CARLINO Y; RÉ VE; DEBES JD

ARCHIVES OF VIROLOGY

SPRINGER WIEN

Lugar: Viena; Año: 2017 vol. 162 p. 787 - 792

0304-8608

Infection with hepatitis E virus (HEV) leads toacute hepatitis infection in immunocompetent hosts. HEVgenotype 3 can present with high frequency and lead tochronic infection in individuals with a compromisedimmune system. The risk factors related to increasedseroprevalence or chronicity in this population are notentirely understood. Moreover, most studies addressingrisk factors for HEV in non-endemic areas come fromdeveloped areas such as North America and Europe. In thisstudy we evaluated seroprevalence, chronicity and riskfactors for HEV in 120 transplant recipients and 88 patientson dialysis in Argentina. We found a significantly higherseroprevalence of HEV IgG in those undergoing dialysiscompared with healthy controls (10.2% and 4.3% respectively,p = 0.03). No difference in HEV seroprevalencewas observed between healthy controls and transplantrecipients (5.8%). We found no association between previouslyidentified risk factors for HEV, such as porkconsumption or use of tacrolimus, and HEV seroprevalence.In univariate and multivariate analyses, consumptionof fish was associated with higher seroprevalence of HEV(OR = 9.33; 95% CI: 2.07?42.2; p = 0.04). None of thesamples showed HEV RNA amplification, indicating thatchronicity does not seem to be an issue in these cohorts.Our results show increased seroprevalence of HEV inindividuals undergoing dialysis but not in transplantrecipients. We also found that fish consumption can be apotential risk factor for acquiring HEV.