Ishikawa K, Matsui K, Madarame T, Sato S, Oikawa K, Uchida T
First Department of Internal Medicine, Iwate Medical University, Japan.
J Gastroenterol. 1995 Aug;30(4):534-8. doi: 10.1007/BF02347574.
Hepatitis E is endemic in developing countries and may occur as imported hepatitis in industrialized countries. A 46-year-old Japanese man developed immunoserologically diagnosed acute hepatitis E in Japan 4 months after he had made a trip to China. He had bought a Chinese herbal medicine there, taking it occasionally until approximately 6 weeks prior to the onset of acute hepatitis. Nucleotide sequencing of the 3' terminal region of the viral cDNA amplified from the patient's serum by polymerase chain reaction revealed a high degree of homology (99.8% of 752 nucleotides) with the Chinese strain. Thus, the results of sequencing suggest that his hepatitis E was caused by infection with the Chinese strain, via the Chinese herbal medicine.
