Prolonged fecal shedding of hepatitis E virus (HEV) during sporadic acute hepatitis E: evaluation of infectivity of HEV in fecal specimens in a cell culture system.

ABSTRACT: To investigate the duration of fecal shedding and changing loads of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in feces and serum from patients with acute HEV infection, HEV RNA was quantitated in periodic serum and fecal specimens obtained from 11 patients with sporadic acute hepatitis E. All 11 patients had detectable HEV RNA in serum at admission, with the highest viral load being 1.9 x 10(3) to 1.7 x 10(7) copies/ml, and HEV viremia lasted until days 17 to 48 (mean, 28.3) after the onset of hepatitis. Even at the initial examination on days 10 to 29 (mean, 17.6), the HEV load in fecal supernatant was less than 5.7 x 10(4) copies/ml for 10 of the 11 patients, while for the remaining patient (patient 1) it was markedly high, 2.0 x 10(7) copies/ml on day 22. In addition, although HEV RNA in fecal supernatan

SUBMITTER: Takahashi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2168470 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature