Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto (FFUP), Porto, Portugal.
Department of Food Safety and Infection Biology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo, Norway.
Eur J Public Health. 2018 Aug 1;28(4):720-724. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckx213.
Evidence has shown that Hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype 3 is autochthonous in industrialized countries due to zoonotic transmission through direct contact or consumption of raw or undercooked meat from domestic swine or wild boar. As there is lack of data on seroprevalence of HEV in the general Portuguese population, a wide survey was conducted as part of the HEPeCONTROL project (60DT2), under EEA grants funding.
Sera from a representative sample of the Portuguese population (n = 1656) at different geographic locations (30 territorial units), and age (0-99 years) were collected between July 2015 and February 2016. The sera were tested for the presence of anti-HEV IgG and IgM by EIA using one of the two most commonly used commercial immunoassays in Europe.
The overall HEV IgG seroprevalence was found to be 16.3% increasing with age (P < 0.05) from 0.6% in the 0-9 years group to 30.1% in people older than 70 years. The seroprevalence also varied geographically with generally higher seropositivities (25-30%) in the most rural areas of Portugal. However, the geographical differences were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Out of 1656 samples, 8 were positive for anti-HEV IgM indicating current of recent HEV infection but no significant differences were found concerning age groups, regions and sex.
The present nation-wide survey provides insight in the epidemiology of HEV in Portugal and confirms that HEV is endemic in the Portuguese population.
有证据表明，由于通过直接接触或食用来自家猪或野猪的生肉或未煮熟的肉进行的人畜共患传播，丙型肝炎病毒（HEV）基因型 3 在工业化国家是土生土长的。由于葡萄牙普通人群中 HEV 的血清流行率缺乏数据，因此在欧洲经济区赠款的资助下，作为 HEPeCONTROL 项目（60DT2）的一部分，进行了广泛的调查。
在不同地理位置（30 个地区单位）和不同年龄（0-99 岁）的葡萄牙代表性人群样本中采集血清（n=1656），时间为 2015 年 7 月至 2016 年 2 月。使用欧洲最常用的两种商业免疫分析法中的一种通过 EIA 检测血清中抗 HEV IgG 和 IgM 的存在。
总体 HEV IgG 血清阳性率为 16.3%，随年龄增长而增加（P<0.05），0-9 岁组为 0.6%，70 岁以上组为 30.1%。血清阳性率也存在地域差异，葡萄牙最偏远地区的血清阳性率通常较高（25-30%）。然而，地域差异无统计学意义（P>0.05）。在 1656 个样本中，有 8 个样本抗 HEV IgM 呈阳性，表明存在当前或近期的 HEV 感染，但在年龄组、地区和性别方面没有发现显著差异。
本次全国范围的调查提供了葡萄牙 HEV 流行病学的深入了解，并证实 HEV 在葡萄牙人群中流行。
