Kabrane-Lazizi Y, Fine J B, Elm J, Glass G E, Higa H, Diwan A, Gibbs C J, Meng X J, Emerson S U, Purcell R H
Hepatitis Viruses Section, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 1999 Aug;61(2):331-5. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.1999.61.331.
Hepatitis E is an important medical pathogen in many developing countries but is rarely reported from the United States, although antibody to hepatitis E virus (anti-HEV) is found in > 1% of U.S. citizens. Zoonotic spread of the virus is suspected. Sera obtained from 239 wild rats trapped in widely separated regions of the United States were tested for anti-HEV. Seventy-seven percent of rats from Maryland, 90% from Hawaii, and 44% from Louisiana were seropositive for anti-HEV. Rats from urban as well as rural areas were seropositive and the prevalence of anti-HEV IgG increased in parallel with the estimated age of the rats, leading to speculation that they might be involved in the puzzling high prevalence of anti-HEV among some U.S. city dwellers. The discovery of a in rats in the United States and the recently reported discovery that HEV is endemic in U.S. swine raise many questions about transmission, reservoirs, and strains of HEV in developed countries.
戊型肝炎在许多发展中国家是一种重要的医学病原体，但在美国却鲜有报道，尽管在美国超过1%的公民体内发现了戊型肝炎病毒抗体（抗 - HEV）。人们怀疑该病毒存在人畜共患传播。对从美国各地捕获的239只野生大鼠的血清进行了抗 - HEV检测。来自马里兰州的大鼠中有77%、来自夏威夷的有90%、来自路易斯安那州的有44%抗 - HEV血清呈阳性。来自城市和农村地区的大鼠血清均呈阳性，且抗 - HEV IgG的流行率随着大鼠估计年龄的增长而平行上升，这引发了一种推测，即它们可能与美国一些城市居民中令人费解的高抗 - HEV流行率有关。在美国大鼠中发现该病毒以及最近报道的戊型肝炎在美国猪中呈地方性流行，引发了许多关于发达国家戊型肝炎传播、宿主和毒株的问题。
