Clinically silent forms may partly explain the rarity of acute cases of autochthonous genotype 3c hepatitis E infection in France.

摘要

This is the first case report on a clinically and biologically asymptomatic immunocompetent patient of European origin with acute HEV infection involving genotype 3c strains. Secondly, only cases like this could explain the discrepancy existing between the high rates of HEV (hepatitis E virus) immunoglobulin G (IgG) sero-prevalence and the rarity of symptomatic HEV infection reported in industrialized countries. Thirdly, testing for hepatitis E among people in contact with acute HEV patients should possibly be recommended in nationwide epidemiological surveys, to detect asymptomatic cases even showing normal liver enzyme levels, especially if a common risk factor possibly responsible for contamination is found to exist.