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Prevalence of hepatitis E virus viremia and antibodies among healthy blood donors in India

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Indian Journal of Gastroenterology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is transmitted primarily through contaminated water and food. Recently, HEV viremia in blood donors and transfusion-related transmission of HEV have been reported, leading to calls to screen donated blood for this virus. However, these data are from regions where genotype 3 HEV is predominant. In India, where human infections are caused only by genotype 1 HEV, the frequency of subclinical HEV viremia is unknown.

Methods

Minipools of sera prepared from three donor units each from our institution's  blood bank in Lucknow, India, were tested for HEV RNA using a sensitive amplification-based assay. A randomly selected subset was also tested for IgG anti-HEV antibodies using a commercial (Wantai) immunoassay.

Results

Sera from 1799 donors (median [range] age 30 [18–63] years; 1746 [97.0%] men) were collected (June–July 2016, 900; November–December 2016, 899). Of these, 17 (0.95%), 16 (0.90%), and 3 (0.17%) tested positive for HBsAg, anti-HCV, and anti-HIV antibodies, respectively. None of the donors tested positive for HEV RNA. Of 633 randomly selected donors (age 30 [18–63] years, 613 [96.8%] male) tested for IgG anti-HEV, 383 (60.5%) tested positive. Seropositivity rate increased with age, being 70/136 (52%), 177/299 (59%), 100/154 (65%), 30/34 (88%), and 6/10 (60%) in the 18–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, and 55 years or older age groups, respectively.

Conclusions

In healthy blood donors from northern India, HEV viremia is infrequent though anti-HEV antibody prevalence is high. This suggests that asymptomatic HEV viremia may be less frequent in areas with genotype 1 predominance than those with genotype 3 predominance.

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Funding

This work was supported by an intramural research grant from the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, to RA. HK was supported by a grant from the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, 226 014, India

    Harshita Katiyar, Amit Goel, Vishwajeet Yadav, Sadul Sapun & Rakesh Aggarwal

  2. Department of Transfusion Medicine, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, 226 014, India

    Atul Sonker & Rajendra Chaudhary

Authors
  1. Harshita Katiyar
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  2. Amit Goel
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  3. Atul Sonker
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  4. Vishwajeet Yadav
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  5. Sadul Sapun
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  6. Rajendra Chaudhary
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  7. Rakesh Aggarwal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rakesh Aggarwal.

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Conflict of interest

HK, AG, AS, VY, SS, RC, and RA declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Written informed consent was taken from all the subjects.

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The authors declare that the study was performed in a manner to conform with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 and 2008 concerning human and animal rights, and the authors followed the policy concerning informed consent as shown on Springer.com.

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Katiyar, H., Goel, A., Sonker, A. et al. Prevalence of hepatitis E virus viremia and antibodies among healthy blood donors in India. Indian J Gastroenterol 37, 342–346 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12664-018-0880-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12664-018-0880-7

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