Advanced Research Journal of Immunology and Virology Vol. 1 (3), pp. 036-040, November, 2013.© Advanced Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

High prevalence of anti-hepatitis E virus among Egyptian blood donors

Endale Tadesse¹*, Lobna Metwally² and Alaa EL- Din Saad Abd-El Hamid³

¹Department of Medical Laboratory Science, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hawassa University, P.O. Box 1560, Hawassa, Ethiopia.

²The Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt.

³The Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt.

*Corresponding author. E- mail: [email protected].  Tel: +251916825929. Fax: + 25146  2208755   

Accepted 9 October, 2013

Abstract 

This study evaluated the seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus among blood donors attending blood transfusion Center of Suez Canal University Hospital from March to September, 2010. Four hundred eighty eight (488) subjects which consisted of 137 Anti- Hepatitis C virus positive donors, 35 Hepatitis B surface antigens positive donors and 316 blood donors who were negative Hepatitis B surface antigen, Anti- Hepatitis C virus and HIV were included in this study. Anti-hepatitis E virus (IgG and IgM) was detected in 17.7, 28.57, and 26.28% of blood donors negative for Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and Anti- Hepatitis C virus, Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive and Anti- Hepatitis C virus positive donors, respectively. No significant (P > 0.05) association was found between anti- Hepatitis E virus positivity and Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positivity and anti-Hepatitis C virus) positivity subjects. The overall prevalence of anti- Hepatitis E virus antibodies (IgG and IgM) was 20.9% (102/488). Seroprevalence increased significantly with age; from 8.3% in subjects below 20 years of age, 16.94% in 20-34 years of age, 34.5% in 35-49 years of age and a slight decline of 33.3% over those of 50 years of age. All anti-HEV antibodies samples were negative for Hepatitis E virus RNA by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. Even though, seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus antibody among blood donors in our study in Ismailia, Egypt is high, transfusion-associated with hepatitis E infection still needs further investigation.

Key words: Hepatitis E virus, Blood donors, seroprevalence.