Local transmission of hepatitis E virus in Australia: implications for clinicians and public health.

transmission” n this issue of the MJA, Yapa and her colleagues report an outbreak of locally acquired hepatitis E virus (HEV) in Australia.1 The authors describe 24 cases of serologcally confirmed HEV infection in people who had not ravelled overseas during the HEV incubation period. f these, 17 individuals could be epidemiologically inked to a single restaurant; HEV sequencing studies ere consistent with a single source outbreak. Seven ther locally acquired infections were also identified hat were not linked to this restaurant; in one case, HEV NA was detected in a pork liver sausage locally prouced in Australia. HEV has previously been detected n Australian pigs.2