Frontiers in Medicine (Sep 2021)

Rat Hepatitis E Virus: Presence in Humans in South-Western France?

  • Delphine Parraud,
  • Sébastien Lhomme,
  • Sébastien Lhomme,
  • Jean Marie Péron,
  • Isabelle Da Silva,
  • Suzanne Tavitian,
  • Nassim Kamar,
  • Jacques Izopet,
  • Jacques Izopet,
  • Florence Abravanel,
  • Florence Abravanel

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.726363
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8

Abstract

Read online

Background: Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) is one of the most common causes of hepatitis worldwide, and South-Western France is a high HEV seroprevalence area. While most cases of HEV infection are associated with the species Orthohepevirus-A, several studies have reported a few cases of HEV infections due to Orthohepevirus-C (HEV-C) that usually infects rats. Most of these human cases have occurred in immunocompromised patients. We have screened for the presence of HEV-C in our region.Methods and Results: We tested 224 sera, mostly from immunocompromised patients, for HEV-C RNA using an in-house real time RT-PCR. Liver function tests gave elevated results in 63% of patients: mean ALT was 159 IU/L (normal < 40 IU/L). Anti-HEV IgG (49%) and anti-HEV IgM (9.4%) were frequently present but none of the samples tested positive for HEV-C RNA.Conclusion: HEV-C does not circulate in the human population of South-Western France, despite the high seroprevalence of anti-HEV IgG.

Keywords