Seroprevalence of Hepatitis E Virus infection among volunteer blood donors in central province of Iran in 2012

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a major public health concern in developing countries. HEV transmission occurs primarily by the fecal-oral route. It has also been reported that blood donors are potentially able to cause transfusion-associated hepatitis E in endemic areas. This study aimed to determine th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Iranian journal of microbiology 2013-06, Vol.5 (2), p.172-176
Main Authors: Ehteram, Hassan, Ramezani, Amitis, Eslamifar, Ali, Sofian, Masoomeh, Banifazl, Mohammad, Ghassemi, Shahin, Aghakhani, Arezoo, Mashayekhi, Parisa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Blood donor
Hepatitis E virus (HEV)
Original
Seroprevalence
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a major public health concern in developing countries. HEV transmission occurs primarily by the fecal-oral route. It has also been reported that blood donors are potentially able to cause transfusion-associated hepatitis E in endemic areas. This study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of HEV infection among volunteer blood donors in Central province of Iran in 2012. A total of 530 consecutive blood donor samples collected from Blood Transfusion Organization, Central Province of Iran. All samples were tested for the presence of IgG Hepatitis E antibody (anti-HEV) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). From 530 blood donors, 91.9% were male and 8.1% were female. Overall, anti-HEV was found in 76 of 530 samples (14.3%). There was no significant difference in HEV seropositivity between the subjects regarding gender and area of residence (urban vs. rural). Anti-HEV was distributed among all age groups. Although people aged 31-50 years had the highest prevalence, but there was no statistical difference between the age groups. This study shows a relatively high prevalence of anti-HEV in the blood donors of Central province of Iran. More investigations are needed to assess the potential benefit of adding HEV screening of blood products to the current blood donor selection criteria.
ISSN:2008-3289
2008-4447