Hepatitis E Virus Infection: Is It Really a Problem in Latin America?

Abstract

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a positive-strand RNA virus with a 7.2-kb genome (species Orthohepevirus A, genus Orthohepevirus, family Hepeviridae) that causes 20 million infections every year worldwide, leading to an estimated 3.3 million symptomatic cases of hepatitis E, being the main cause of acute viral hepatitis worldwide.1,2 The virus is transmitted through the fecal-oral route, principally via contaminated water, although other routes of infection have been described, such as vertical transmission and blood transfusions.3 Eight genotypes have been described, and four are the most frequent in humans: HEV-1 and HEV-2 infect only human beings, whereas HEV-3 and HEV-4 are zoonotic viruses, which can infect persons by direct contact with animals or ingestion of contaminated food.