Current recommendations to ensure a safe water supply may have been insufficient to inactivate HEV and control this epidemic. This research highlights the need to evaluate current water treatment methods and to identify alternative solutions adapted to complex emergencies.

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections are very common in the general population and among immunocompromised patients. Acyclovir (ACV) is an effective treatment which is widely used. We deemed it essential to conduct a wide and coordinated survey of the emergence of ACV-resistant HSV strains . We have formed a network of 15 virology laboratories which have isolated and identified, between May 1999 and April 2002, HSV type 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2 strains among hospitalized subjects. The sensitivity of each isolate to ACV was evaluated by a colorimetric test (C. Danve, F. Morfin, D. Thouvenot, and M. Aymard, J. Virol. Methods 105:207-217, 2002). During this study, 3,900 isolated strains among 3,357 patients were collected; 55% of the patients were immunocompetent. Only six immunocompetent patients excreted ACV-resistant HSV strains (0.32%), including one female patient not treated with ACV who was infected primary by an ACV-resistant strain. Among the 54 immunocompromised patients from whom ACV-resistant HSV strains were isolated (3.5%), the bone marrow transplantation patients showed the highest prevalence of resistance (10.9%), whereas among patients infected by human immunodeficiency virus, the prevalence was 4.2%. In 38% of the cases, the patients who excreted the ACV-resistant strains were treated with foscarnet (PFA), and 61% of them developed resistance to PFA. The collection of a large number of isolates enabled an evaluation of the prevalence of resistance of HSV strains to antiviral drugs to be made. This prevalence has remained stable over the last 10 years, as much among immunocompetent patients as among immunocompromised patients.Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections are very common; they are localized on the face and torso in the case of HSV type 1 (HSV-1) and in the genital region in the case of HSV-2. HSV-1 infections in the genital region are on the increase (40). Ocular herpes is less frequent, and neonatal herpes and herpetic meningoencephalitis are very rare but have a severe functional and vital prognosis (37).Since acyclovir (ACV) {9-[(2-hydroxyethoxy)methyl)guanine]} was introduced to the market in 1983, it has been used primarily in the prevention and treatment of HSV infections. ACV-resistant HSV strains have been observed in vivo since the first large therapeutic trials (5, 10, 36). These resistant strains are detected in vitro by phenotypic tests which determine the antiviral concentration inhibiting viral replication by 50%. Several methods have been used to evaluate the sensitivity of the HSV strains to ACV, including techniques to detect the intensity of the cytopathic effect, such as the plaque reduction (17, 31) and colorimetric (11,22,26) techniques, but also the detection of DNA replication by hybridization (39) or antigen production by flow cytometry (30).Previous surveys among immunocompetent patients have shown a prevalence of resistance to ACV varying between 0 and 0.6%, whereas among immunocompromised patients, the prevalence varied between 3 and 6% (9,16,29). The use of ACV is co...

This large epidemic of HEV infection illustrates the dramatic impact of this disease on pregnant women. Timely interventions and a vaccine are urgently needed to prevent mortality in this special group.

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is a positive-stranded RNA virus in the genus

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SUMMARY BackgroundFew data are available on the incidence, risk factors and contamination pathways involved in acute indigenous hepatitis E in developed countries.

Frequent zoonotic transmission of hepatitis E virus (HEV) has been suspected, but data supporting the animal origin of autochthonous cases are still sparse. We assessed the genetic identity of HEV strains found in humans and swine during an 18-month period in France. HEV sequences identified in patients with autochthonous hepatitis E infection (n = 106) were compared with sequences amplified from swine livers collected in slaughterhouses (n = 43). Phylogenetic analysis showed the same proportions of subtypes 3f (73.8%), 3c (13.4%), and 3e (4.7%) in human and swine populations. Furthermore, similarity of >99% was found between HEV sequences of human and swine origins. These results indicate that consumption of some pork products, such as raw liver, is a major source of exposure for autochthonous HEV infection.