Low seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus among blood donors in Switzerland

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_E7403E89239A
Type
Inproceedings: an article in a conference proceedings.
Publication sub-type
Poster: Summary – with images – on one page of the results of a researche project. The summaries of the poster must be entered in "Abstract" and not "Poster".
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Low seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus among blood donors in Switzerland
Title of the conference
78. Jahresversammlung der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Innere Medizin
Author(s)
Kaufmann A., Canellini G., Kenfak Foguena A., Cavassini M., André C., Bürgisser P., Moradpour D.
Address
Basel, Schweiz, 19.-21. Mai, 2010
ISBN
1424-4985
ISSN-L
1424-4977
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2010
Volume
10
Series
Swiss Medical Forum
Pages
74S
Language
english
Abstract
Introduction: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) emerged as an autochthonous
food-borne disease in developed countries, transmitted mainly through
pork meat. Cases of transmission through blood transfusion have been
reported. Recent studies revealed sero-prevalence rates of 13.5%,
16.6% and 20.6% among blood donors in England, France and
Denmark, respectively. The aim of this study was to determine the
sero-prevalence of HEV among Swiss blood donors.
Method: We screened 550 consecutive blood donations from the
Service Régional Vaudois de Transfusion Sanguine of Epalinges, for the
presence of anti-HEV IgG (MP Diagnostics HEV ELISA). The sample
size was based on the Lorentz formula considering an expected
prevalence of 3% with a precision of 1.5%. For each donor, we studied
the following variables: age, sex and alanine aminotransferase (ALT)
value.
Results: All blood donors were Caucasian, and included 332 men
(60.4%) and 218 women (39.6%). The median age was 55 years (IQR
46-63 years). Overall, anti-HEV IgG were found in 27 of 550 samples
(4.9%). The sero-prevalence was 5.4% (18/314) in men and 4.1%
(9/209) in women. The presence of anti-HEV IgG was not correlated to
age, gender or ALT values.
Conclusion: Compared to other European countries, the HEV
sero-prevalence among blood donors in Switzerland is surprisingly low.
Possible explanations include the strict regulation of animals and meat
import. However, to confirm this hypothesis, further studies assessing
the prevalence of HEV in Swiss swine will be necessary.
Create date
06/01/2011 15:21
Last modification date
20/08/2019 17:10
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