Progress and Challenges to Hepatitis E Vaccine Development and Deployment
Xingcheng Huang,
Jiaoxi Lu,
Mengjun Liao,
Yue Huang,
Ting Wu,
Ningshao Xia
Affiliations
Xingcheng Huang
State Key Laboratory of Vaccines for Infectious Diseases, Xiang An Biomedicine Laboratory, School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China
Jiaoxi Lu
State Key Laboratory of Vaccines for Infectious Diseases, Xiang An Biomedicine Laboratory, School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China
Mengjun Liao
State Key Laboratory of Vaccines for Infectious Diseases, Xiang An Biomedicine Laboratory, School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China
Yue Huang
State Key Laboratory of Vaccines for Infectious Diseases, Xiang An Biomedicine Laboratory, School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China
Ting Wu
State Key Laboratory of Vaccines for Infectious Diseases, Xiang An Biomedicine Laboratory, School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China
Ningshao Xia
State Key Laboratory of Vaccines for Infectious Diseases, Xiang An Biomedicine Laboratory, School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China
Hepatitis E is a significant cause of acute hepatitis, contributing to high morbidity and mortality rates, and capable of causing large epidemics through fecal–oral transmission. Currently, no specific treatment for hepatitis E has been approved. Given the notably high mortality rate among HEV-infected pregnant women and individuals with underlying chronic liver disease, concerted efforts have been made to develop effective vaccines. The only licensed hepatitis E vaccine worldwide, the HEV 239 (Hecolin) vaccine, has been demonstrated to be safe and efficacious in Phase III clinical trials, in which the efficacy of three doses of HEV 239 remained at 86.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 73.0–94.1) at the end of 10 years follow-up. In this review, the progress and challenges for hepatitis E vaccines are summarized.
