Abstract
with seroprevalence rate ranging from 4–20% and more than 25% of acute viral hepatitis is due to HEV. The northern part of India has been experiencing outbreaks and sporadic cases of HEV since 1955. This study was carried-out for the phylogenetic characterizations of HEV in PGIMER, Chandigarh, a tertiary care hospital that caters major parts of northern and western India. Materials: Total 843 serum samples were collected (2002–2006), from patients, suspected of having viral hepatitis. Out of these, 116 samples were collected from an outbreak of suspected HEV from Mansa (29°59′58′′N, 75°59′22′′E) and Kurali (30°49′59′′N, 76°34′12′′E), Punjab and rest were collected from sporadic cases attending the liver clinic. ELISA and nRT-PCR was performed for screening of HEV. The RT-PCR positive samples were subjected to sequencing using ABI PRISM BigDye Terminator cycle sequencing. N-J algorithm was implemented for the phylogenetic-analysis (4254–4560, RdRp) using MEGA 4.0.2.DNASTAR was used to calculate the %nucleotide-identity and genetic-divergence between the isolates. Result: 315/843 (37%) sample were found to be positive for IgM antibody specific for HEV. 16% of the sample were positive for viral RNA out of 185 samples those have with one week of infection history. In the phylogenetic analysis the present isolates were clustered with the genotype I. Further critical analysis revealed 10 acute, 2 fulminate isolates clustered with sub type Ia, 4 clustered with the FHF strain(X98292) under subtype Ic. Sequences from acute-patients showed 93.5–99.7% identity with the North-Indian strain (AF459438), while the FHF-isolates were 94.8–98.4% identical to the FHF-strain(X98292). Conclusion: The characterization and epidemiological-investigation of infectious disease at molecular level is very important. It provides insight in to circulation of prevalent-strains and entry of new-strains from different geographical area, further their role in disease severity and pathology. The present study showed sub-type IA and IC under genotypeI is currently circulating in this part of the geographical area.
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