Declining prevalence of hepatitis E antibodies among Danish blood donors
BACKGROUND The increasing incidence of reported hepatitis E cases in Europe has focused attention on hepatitis E virus (HEV) and the risk of transfusion‐transmitted hepatitis E. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of antibodies to HEV (anti‐HEV) among Danish blood donors in 2013...
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Published in | Transfusion (Philadelphia, Pa.) Vol. 55; no. 7; pp. 1662 - 1667 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01.07.2015
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | BACKGROUND
The increasing incidence of reported hepatitis E cases in Europe has focused attention on hepatitis E virus (HEV) and the risk of transfusion‐transmitted hepatitis E. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of antibodies to HEV (anti‐HEV) among Danish blood donors in 2013 and to compare it to previous studies in Denmark. In addition we wanted to compare the relative reactivity of two different assays.
STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS
Samples from 504 blood donors were collected and analyzed for anti‐HEV with an in‐house assay developed at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In addition the samples were analyzed with the Wantai anti‐HEV assay. Demographic information and possible HEV exposure was collected by self‐administered questionnaire.
RESULTS
Using the NIH assay the prevalence of anti‐HEV among Danish blood donors was 10.7% and with the Wantai assay the prevalence of anti‐HEV was 19.8% (p < 0.001). In both cases the presence of anti‐HEV was significantly correlated with increasing age. In addition, anti‐HEV as measured by the Wantai test was significantly associated with contact with children (p = 0.01), but in multivariate analysis only age was associated with anti‐HEV in both assays. By the NIH assay, the prevalence had declined from 20.6% in 2003 to 10.7% in 2013.
CONCLUSIONS
Anti‐HEV prevalence had decreased by half among Danish blood donors over 10 years, but was still highly prevalent. The difference in reactivity of the two assays demonstrates the importance of using the same assay when comparing the anti‐HEV prevalence in populations over time. |
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Bibliography: | istex:1ED3A70FB56540907EF24D9CA1501408E9093C86 ark:/67375/WNG-K6XKDH6P-3 ArticleID:TRF13028 Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH This work was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH. ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0041-1132 1537-2995 |
DOI: | 10.1111/trf.13028 |