Non-A, non-B fulminant viral hepatitis in France in returnees from Asia and Africa

Abstract

Among 61 patients admitted for non-A, non-B fulminant viral hepatitis to Hôpital Beaujon, 10 had returned from Asia or Africa, and 51 had not been outside France, within the month preceding jaundice. This suggests that hepatitis might have been contracted in Asia or Africa in the former, and in France in the latter. The interval between the onset of jaundice and the onset of hepatic encephalopathy was 10 days in the former and 26 days in the latter (P less than 0.03). The serum of the patient returning from Asia contained, and the sera of the nine patients returning from Africa did not contain, antibodies to a virus isolated from the stools of patients suffering from an epidemic fecal-oral non-A, non-B viral hepatitis in Central Asia. It is concluded that infection with Asian-African non-A, non-B viruses can be the cause of fulminant hepatitis in persons returning from these countries, that the course of this type of non-A, non-B fulminant viral hepatitis is shorter than that of non-A, non-B fulminant hepatitis contracted in France, and that different viruses might be responsible for non-A, non-B hepatitis in Asia and Africa.

Expression of hepatitis E virus putative structural proteins in recombinant vaccinia viruses

“…characterizing the cell-mediated immune response to HEV. Enterically transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis occurs in epidemics or sporadically in many geographic locations, including India (13,14,27,32), Nepal (10), Burma (14,26), Pakistan (3), Mexico (30), the former Soviet Union (1), Africa (2, 24), North America (4), and Western Europe (17). Acute outbreaks of enterically transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis primarily affect young to middle-aged adults and are often associated with a high mortality rate in infected pregnant women, approaching 20% in many reported epidemics (20).…”

Expression and diagnostic utility of hepatitis E virus putative structural proteins expressed in insect cells

“…Enterically transmitted non-A, non-B (ET-NANB) hepatitis occurs in epidemics and sporadically in many geographic locations, including India (12,13,25,32), Nepal (10), Burma (18, 24), Pakistan (4), Mexico (28), the former Soviet Union (1), Africa (2, 23), North America (5), and western Europe (17). ET-NANB hepatitis was first documented in New Delhi, India, in 1955 (30) and is primarily associated with the ingestion of fecally contaminated drinking water.…”