Kantala Tuija, Maunula Leena, von Bonsdorff Carl-Henrik, Peltomaa Jaakko, Lappalainen Maija
Department of Food and Environmental Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, P.O. Box 66, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland.
J Clin Virol. 2009 Jun;45(2):109-13. doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2009.03.006. Epub 2009 Apr 18.
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an important cause of enterically transmitted viral hepatitis, especially in developing countries. Recently, HEV isolates have been identified in humans also in industrialized countries, where it has been considered nonendemic.
To investigate whether HEV is a cause of unexplained hepatitis in humans in Finland.
The prevalence of anti-HEV IgM and IgG and HEV RNA was determined in 105 serum samples from 97 patients diagnosed with acute unexplained hepatitis. Partial nucleotide sequences of the HEV isolates obtained were compared with reported sequences in GenBank.
Anti-HEV IgM and/or IgG by both ELISA test and immunoblotting were detected in 29 serum samples (27.6%) from 22 patients (22.7%). HEV RNA was detected in eight patient samples (8.2%) and partial nucleotide sequences were present in five of these. All five viruses belonged to HEV genotype 1, and three of them were from patients who had traveled to Asia.
These preliminary results indicate that HEV must be considered a possible cause of acute hepatitis in Finland.
戊型肝炎病毒（HEV）是经肠道传播的病毒性肝炎的重要病因，尤其在发展中国家。最近，在工业化国家的人类中也发现了HEV毒株，而这些国家曾被认为不存在HEV地方性流行。
调查在芬兰，HEV是否为人类不明原因肝炎的病因。
对97例诊断为急性不明原因肝炎患者的105份血清样本测定抗HEV IgM、IgG及HEV RNA的流行情况。将获得的HEV毒株的部分核苷酸序列与GenBank中报告的序列进行比较。
通过酶联免疫吸附试验（ELISA）和免疫印迹法在22例患者（22.7%）的29份血清样本（27.6%）中检测到抗HEV IgM和/或IgG。在8例患者样本（8.2%）中检测到HEV RNA，其中5份存在部分核苷酸序列。所有5株病毒均属于HEV 1型，其中3株来自去过亚洲的患者。
这些初步结果表明，在芬兰必须将HEV视为急性肝炎的可能病因。
