Hepatitis E in Germany – an emerging infection?

Abstract

Introduction: In the past decade, an increasing frequency of acute hepatitis E was noted in Germany and other European countries, the majority of cases being acquired in Germany (autochthonous cases) caused by genotype 3. A previous study found a very high prevalence (17%) of antibodies against hepatitis E in the adult German population. However, despite these characteristics pointing to an emerging infection, two recent reports from Denmark and England showed that the prevalence of anti-HEV has decreased over the past 50 years. In order to investigate the time trends of hepatitis E infection in Germany, we performed anti-HEV testing in sera of adults taken in 2011 and compared the results to the prevalence of anti-HEV in a comparable group whose sera were taken in 1996.