Persistent infection of hepatitis E virus transmitted by blood transfusion in a patient with T‐cell lymphoma

Abstract

We report here an unusual case of long-term HEV infection in a patient with T-cell lymphoma. Persistent infection with HEV was probably due to the absence of anti-HEV antibodies, which was caused by lymphoma and chemotherapy.

Chronic Hepatitis E Virus Infection and Treatment

“…3,24,30,41,83,84 The clinical and laboratory features of chronic HEV in these patients are similar to those in recipients of a SOT. A few cases have been treated successfully with pegylated interferon or ribavirin as monotherapies.…”

“…Although, no case of HEV transmission via blood transfusion has been reported in the transplant population, 9 HEV seroprevalence in blood donors is high 29 and cases of HEV transmission via blood products have been reported in other populations. [30][31][32] Hence, if HEV infection is detected a few days after a blood transfusion, this mode of contamination should be investigated.…”

Incidence of Hepatitis E Virus Infection in Recipients of Blood or Blood Products Transfusion

“…As rates of transfusion associated hepatitis B and C are declining, focus is shifting to either new viral agents like transfusion transmitted virus (TTV), SEN virus, etc., or to viruses generally not known to be transmitted parenterally like HEV whose predominant mode of transmission is faeco-oral. HEV infection can theoretically be transmitted parenterally during the initial viraemic phase and has been conclusively demonstrated to be transmitted by blood transfusion but in isolated case reports only [11][12][13][14][15][16]. There have been no prospective studies till date to elucidate the risk of transfusion associated HEV infection.…”

Hépatite E

“…À l'instar de l'infection par HAV (virus de l'hépatite A), on considérait jusqu'à présent que l'infection par HEV était constamment résolutive. Des travaux récents ont cependant montré qu'une évolution vers la chronicité, définie par la persistance d'une virémie pendant plus de 6 mois, était possible en cas d'immunodépression thérapeutique dans le cadre d'une chimiothérapie [10,11] ou d'une transplantation [12,13]. Dans une série de 14 cas d'hépatite E survenant chez des transplantés hépatiques et rénaux, 8 patients (57 %) ont pré-senté une infection chronique caractérisée par la persistance du génome viral dans le sang, une élévation des aminotransférases et des lésions d'hé-patite chronique sur la biopsie hépatique [12].…”