Hepatitis E Virus in Cambodia: Prevalence among the General Population and Complete Genome Sequence of Genotype 4

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 8; p. e0136903
• Main Authors: Yamada, Hiroko, Takahashi, Kazuaki, Lim, Olline, Svay, Somana, Chuon, Channarena, Hok, Sirany, Do, Son Huy, Fujimoto, Mayumi, Akita, Tomoyuki, Goto, Noboru, Katayama, Keiko, Arai, Masahiro, Tanaka, Junko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 28.08.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Cambodia - epidemiology; Child; Confidence intervals; Cross-Sectional Studies; Disease control; Disease prevention; Distribution; Drinking water; Elementary school students; Epidemiology; Feces; Female; Forecasts and trends; Genetic analysis; Genetic aspects; Genome, Viral; Genomes; Genotype; Genotype & phenotype; Genotypes; Geriatrics; Health sciences; Hepatitis; Hepatitis Antibodies - metabolism; Hepatitis E - epidemiology; Hepatitis E - immunology; Hepatitis E - virology; Hepatitis E virus; Hepatitis E virus - genetics; Hepatitis E virus - immunology; Hepatitis E virus - isolation & purification; History, Ancient; Hogs; Humans; Identification and classification; Immunoglobulin G; Infections; Infectious diseases; Livestock; Middle Aged; Next-generation sequencing; Nucleotide sequence; Nucleotides; Occupational health; Older people; Population; Public health; Public health administration; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Ribonucleic acid; Risk Factors; Risk groups; RNA; Sequence Analysis, RNA - methods; Seroepidemiologic Studies; Seroepidemiology; Statistical analysis; Studies; Viruses; Workers; Young Adult; Zoonoses; Cambodia; England; Vietnam; Asia; China; Japan
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136903
• ISSN: 1932-6203

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a growing public health problem in many countries. In this study, we investigated HEV seroprevalence among the general population in the Siem Reap province, Cambodia, and performed HEV genetic analysis with the aim to develop an HEV prevention strategy. This seroepidemiological cross-sectional study conducted from 2010 to 2014 included 868 participants from four different locations in Siem Reap province, Cambodia. They answered questionnaires and provided blood samples for the analysis of hepatitis virus infections. Among the participants (360 men and 508 women; age range, 7-90 years), the prevalence of anti-HEV IgG was 18.4% (95% confidence interval: 15.9-21.0); HEV RNA was detected in two participants (0.23%) and was classified as genotype 3 and 4. Full-length genome of the genotype 4 isolate, CVS-Sie10, was sequenced; it contained 7,222 nucleotides and three ORFs and demonstrated high sequence identity with the swine China isolates swGX40 (95.57%), SS19 (94.37%), and swDQ (91.94%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that men, elderly people, and house workers were risk groups significantly associated with the positivity for anti-HEV IgG. This is the first report on the detection of HEV genotype 4 in humans in Cambodia and on the complete genome sequence of HEV genotype 4 from this country. Our study demonstrates that new HEV infection cases occur frequently among the general population in Cambodia, and effective preventive measures are required.