Abstract
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a common cause of acute hepatitis worldwide. In Europe, HEV is a zoonosis transmitted via contaminated pork meat or other pork food products. Genotype 3 is the most prevalent HEV type in the animal reservoir, as well as in humans. Despite an increased incidence of hepatitis E across Europe, much remains unknown about its spread, sources and transmission routes. A One Health approach is crucial to better understand the (molecular) epidemiology of HEV. HEVnet was established in April 2017 as a network and database for sharing sequences and accompanying metadata collected from human, animal, food and environmental sources. HEVnet members working in the public health, veterinary health, food, environmental and blood safety sectors have submitted 1,615 HEV sequences from nine countries as at January 2019. Most are from humans (89%), and sequences of animal (5%), food (6%) or environmental (0.3%) origin are rare. Metadata for human sequences capture mostly sex (93%), year of birth (92%) and sampling (100%); data on region of sampling (37%) and clinical information (hospitalisation 27%, symptoms 20% or mortality 8%) are limited. HEVnet aims to expand into a global network capable of performing cross-sectoral and supranational studies, with a joint repository of molecular and epidemiological data on HEV.
Highlights
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is one of the most common causative agents of acute hepatitis worldwide, with four major genotypes (1–4) affecting humans
In Europe, hepatitis E is considered a zoonosis transmitted via contaminated pork meat or other pork food products
Genotype 3 and, to a lesser degree, genotype 4 are prevalent in the animal reservoir, as well as in humans [2]
Summary
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is one of the most common causative agents of acute hepatitis worldwide, with four major genotypes (1–4) affecting humans. There are occasional reports of HEV transmission through other routes, such as shellfish, salad or vegetables contaminated by sewage water carrying HEV from infected animals or humans [2,3,4,5,6,7]. Infection through contaminated blood products or other substances of human origin have been reported, and some European countries (the United Kingdom, followed by Ireland and the Netherlands) have implemented comprehensive testing of blood donations to reduce infections among patients who are vulnerable to developing chronic hepatitis E [8]. A One Health approach is necessary to understand and mitigate HEV transmission via substances of human origin, animals, food and the environment [2]. Animal/food/environmental origin sequences and typing results according to standardised nomenclature, with time and place
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