Abstract
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) was discovered during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, after an outbreak of unexplained hepatitis at a military camp. A pooled faecal extract from affected soldiers was ingested by a member of the research team. He became sick, and the new virus (named HEV), was detected in his stool by electron microscopy. Subsequently, endemic HEV has been identified in many resource-poor countries. Globally, HEV is the most common cause of acute viral hepatitis. The virus was not initially thought to occur in developed countries, but recent reports have shown this notion to be mistaken. The aim of this Seminar is to describe recent discoveries regarding HEV, and how they have changed our understanding of its effect on human health worldwide.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2477-2488 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | The Lancet |
| Volume | 379 |
| Issue number | 9835 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2012 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We searched Medline, Current Contents, and references from relevant articles published between January, 1986, and September, 2011; many articles were identified through searches of the extensive files of the authors. Search terms were “hepatitis E”, “HEV transmission”, “HEV genotypes”, “HEV serology”, and “the discovery of HEV”. Contributors All authors contributed equally to the preparation of this Seminar. Conflicts of interest HRD has received travel and accommodation costs and consultancy fees from GlaxoSmithKlein and Wantai. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest. Acknowledgments We thank Debbie Morcom for preparing figures 2 and 4 , and Jon White for figure 3 , and Buddha Basnyat for his helpful comments. We also thank the Royal College of Physicians (London) who awarded HRD the Sheila Sherlock Travelling Fellowship to support this work.
