seroepidemiology study of hepatitis e virus infection in tehran province: a population based study

seroepidemiology study of hepatitis e virus infection in tehran province: a population based study     mohebbi sr [1] , rostaminejad m [2] , ebrahim tahaei s m [3] , pourhoseingholi ma [4] , habibi m [5] , azimzadeh p [6] , naghoosi h [7] , derakhshan f [8] , zali mr [9]     received: 26 jan, 2011 accepted: 19 apr, 2011     abstract:   background & aims : hepatitis e virus (hev) is the second prevalent causative agent of acute hepatitis in adults after hepatitis b. transmission routes of this infection is fecal-oral. there are limited studies on epidemiology of this virus in iranian general population. in this study, we evaluated the prevalence of hepatitis e infection in general population of some towns of tehran province and eastern and northern section of tehran city.   materials & methods : in this cross-sectional study conducted in 2006 and 2007 a number of 501 subjects selected by random cluster sampling from tehran province were studied. demographic data (through a questionnaire) and blood samples were collected and anti-hev antibodies were measured by elisa method. chi-square test, logistic regression, and t-test were used for statistical analysis .   result : o f the total 493 subjects with mean age of 40.98± 17.10, 180 were men and the rest (313 subjects) were women. of these numbers, 48 subjects (9.7%) were positive for anti-hev antibody. there were no significant differences in hev seropositivity and different sex or age groups.   conclusion : t he prevalence in tehran province was high and this indicates the endemic state of this infection in the studied population. results are similar to those in eastern section of golestan province and are in contradiction with results from isfehan province.   keywords: hepatitis e, prevalence, anti-hepatitis e antibody     address: tehran, velenjak st., yemen, parvaneh street, ayatollah taleghani hospital, seventh floor, digestive disease research center, shaheed beheshti university of medical sciences   tel: ) +98) 2122432514   email: [email protected]   [1] phd in virology, research center for gastroenterology and hepatology, shahid beheshti university of medical sciences tehran, iran (corresponding author)  [2] bs in microbiology, research center for gastroenterology and hepatology, shahid beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran  [3] master in virology, shahid beheshti university of medical sciences research center of gastroenterology and hepatology, tehran, iran  [4] phd in biostatistics, research center for gastroenterology and hepatology, shahid beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran  [5] master in animal physiology, gastrointestinal and liver research center, shaheed beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran  [6] master in cell and molecular biology, research center for gastroenterology and hepatology, shahid beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran  [7] master in microbiology, research center for gastroenterology and hepatology, shahid beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran  [8] associate professor, specialist in internal medicine and subspecialty of gastroenterology and hepatology, gastroenterology and liver research center, shaheed beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran  [9] professor, specialist in internal medicine and subspecialty of gastroenterology and hepatology, gastroenterology and liver research center, shaheed beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran