Prevalence of Hepatitis A Virus and Hepatitis E Virus in Western Thar Region

Introduction: Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) and Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) pose major health problems in India. Both viruses are enterically transmitted, resulting in Acute Viral Hepatitis (AVH) in developing countries. This study was done to determine prevalence of HAV and HEV and their co-infection in patients presenting with AVH in a tertiary care hospital. Aim: To determine the prevalence of HAV and HEV and their co-infection among patients attending a Tertiary Care Hospital in Jodhpur presenting with symptoms of acute hepatitis. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study of one year duration was conducted in the Department of Microbiology, Dr S.N. Medical College, Jodhpur. A non random sampling of 174 patients presenting with AVH was considered in the study. On the basis of history, serum samples were analyzed for IgM anti-HAV and IgM anti-HEV for the detection of HAV and HEV, respectively using commercially available ELISA kits. Data collected was analysed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 11 and p-value <0.05 was considered significant. Results: The seroprevalence of HAV and HEV positive patients were 13.79% and 4.02%, respectively. The seroprevalence of both HAV and HEV in patients with AVH was 1.15%. The prevalence of HAV and HEV among males (58.3% and 41.6%) was higher than in females (7.97% and 14.28%). Conclusion: The prevalence of HAV is higher than that of HEV but screening of HEV should be done as there are cases of coinfections. In this region of country, these data will play a role in planning of vaccination strategies and for better sanitation programme in future