Hepatitis E virus seroprevalence among hemodialysis and hemophiliac patients in Tunisia (North Africa)

Abstract

The aims of this study are to determine seroprevalence of Hepatitis E virus (HEV) in Tunisian blood donors and to evaluate its risk of parenteral transmission. Sera collected from 426 blood donors were tested for HEV IgG by indirect ELISA. Individuals were recruited from two national transfusion centers, in the North and the South of the country. Seroprevalence of HEV IgG was then compared with two other groups with increased risk of exposure to parenterally transmitted agents: 80 hemophiliac and 286 hemodialysis patients. Among blood donors, the seroprevalence was estimated to be 4.5%. It was significantly higher in the hemophiliac and hemodialysis groups with 7.5% and 10.2%, respectively, (P = 0.002). No significant correlation was observed for this IgG 1 seroprevalence between age and sex among three studied groups. These results suggest that HEV has a high risk of parenteral transmission and confirm that the low endemicity of hepatitis E in Tunisia was observed.

Southern Tunisia: A still high endemicity area for hepatitis A

“…Generally, reported seroprevalences are much higher in Egypt than in Morocco or Tunisia, where reported seroprevalence rates do not exceed 46% in older adults. In Northern Tunisian regions, by using the Globe Diagnostics assay, reported seroprevalences were 12;1% among pregnant women [7], 28.9% among polytransfused patients [7], 10.2% among hemodialysis patients [6] and 4,5% among blood donors [6]. A similar low prevalence of 5.4% was reported among blood donors by using the Genelabs Diagnostics assay [8].…”

“…A number of studies have described the prevalence of enterically transmitted hepatitis viruses in various parts of Tunisia [6] [7–9]. However, there are no data from the Southern governorates.…”

Systematic review with meta‐analysis: the association between hepatitis E seroprevalence and haemodialysis

“…The flow diagram of the study selection is shown in Figure and Figure S8. We identified 31 studies from 17 countries between 1994 and 2016 that met the selection criteria . One of the identified publications (Dalekos et al) was considered as two studies as it presented data emanating from two regions in Greece, making the total count of analysed studies included in the meta‐analysis 32.…”

Prevalence of Hepatitis E Virus Antibodies Among Blood Donors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…For many years, hepatitis E was recognized as an infection of tropical countries, especially developing and undeveloped countries, caused by contaminated drinking water and food. In developed countries, HEV infection was thought to be travel associated, but many studies reported autochthonous cases (3)(4)(5).…”