Seroepidemiologic assessment of Hepatitis E virus in women of reproductive age, Gorgan

authors:

avatar Abdolvahab Moradi 1 , avatar Sima Besharat 2 , * , avatar Mohammad Mehdi Minaiifar 2 , avatar Gholamreza Roshandel 2 , avatar Alijan Tabaraii 3

Associated Professor, Dept. of Virology, Golestan Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Golestan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Gorgan, Iran.
General Practitioner, Golestan Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Golestan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Gorgan, Iran.
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Virology, Golestan Research Center of Infectious Diseases, Golestan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Gorgan, Iran.
Zahedan Journal of Research in Medical Sciences: Vol.12, issue 1; e94352
published online: January 14, 2010
article type: Short Communication
received: April 18, 2009
accepted: November 15, 2009

how to cite: Moradi A, Besharat S, Minaiifar M M, Roshandel G, Tabaraii A. Seroepidemiologic assessment of Hepatitis E virus in women of reproductive age, Gorgan. Zahedan J Res Med Sci. 2010;12(1):e94352. 

Abstract

 Background: Hepatitis E virus can be disseminated oral-fecally and its fulminant form mortality rate maybe up to 20% in the third trimester of pregnancy. This study aimed to assess the sero-epidemiology of HEV in women of reproductive age in Gorgan, Iran.
  Materials and m ethods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 1200 women ages between 17-45 years were recruited from laboratories and health care systems of Gorgan. Demographic data was recorded in the checklists. ELISA method (DIAPRO) was done to evaluate the anti-HEV antibody. Data were entered into SPSS-13 software for analysis by Chi-squared and Fisher exact test.
  Results: Mean ( ± SD) age of the cases was 27.41 ( ±6.33). Among 1200 subjects, 76(6.3%) cases had positive anti-HEV antibodies. Age and ethnicity had a significant relationship with HEV (p-value<0.05), but no significant relationship was seen between other variables.
  Conclusions: According to our results and due to higher positive cases in 30-40 years-old women, more researches especially in pregnant women are suggested.

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