Evaluating the prevalence of Hepatitis E virus infection in a large cohort of European blood donors, 2015-2018.

ABSTRACT: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is endemic in Europe. However, standardized methods for the surveillance of HEV viremia in the general population are lacking. This study aimed to compare the incidence of HEV among blood donors in two European countries, Germany and Portugal, during the period 2015-2018. The seasonal distribution of HEV infection, as well as host risk factors including age, sex, and blood group phenotype were explored. A total of 191,236 donations from Germany and Portugal were tested for HEV RNA in plasma mini-pools of up to 96 donations using an internally controlled reverse transcription real-time PCR (RT-PCR) assay. The 95% cut-off of the assay was 15 International Units (IU)/mL (CI 10-35 IU/mL) as determined by dilution of the WHO International Standard for HEV RNA. Blood type

SUBMITTER: Healy K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9545359 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature