TY - JOUR
T1 - Risk of hepatitis e among persons who inject drugs in Hong Kong
T2 - A qualitative and quantitative serological analysis
AU - Sridhar, Siddharth
AU - Chew, Nicholas Foo Siong
AU - Situ, Jianwen
AU - Wu, Shusheng
AU - Chui, Ernest Sing Hong
AU - Lam, Athene Hoi Ying
AU - Cai, Jian Piao
AU - Cheng, Vincent Chi Chung
AU - Yuen, Kwok Yung
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/5
Y1 - 2020/5
N2 - Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an important cause of hepatitis, which can be transmitted via the bloodborne route. However, risk of hepatitis E among persons who inject drugs (PWIDs) is poorly understood. This study aimed to elucidate whether PWIDs are at risk for hepatitis E. We performed HEV IgM, IgG and nucleic acid detection on a cohort of 91 PWIDs and 91 age-and sex-matched organ donors. Blood HEV IgG was measured using the WHO HEV antibody standard. The effects of age, gender and addictive injection use on HEV serostatus and concentration were assessed. HEV IgG seroprevalence was 42/91 (46.2%) in the PWID group and 20/91 (22%) in the donor group (odds ratio = 3.04 (1.59–5.79), p = 0.0006). The median HEV IgG concentration was 5.8 U/mL (IQR: 2.5–7.9) in the PWID group and 2.1 U/mL (IQR: 1.2–5.3) in the donor group (p = 0.005). Increasing age and addictive injection use were significantly associated with HEV IgG serostatus, but only addictive injection use was associated with HEV IgG concentration (p = 0.024). We conclude that PWIDs are at increased risk for hepatitis E and are prone to repeated HEV exposure and reinfection as indicated by higher HEV IgG concentrations.
AB - Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an important cause of hepatitis, which can be transmitted via the bloodborne route. However, risk of hepatitis E among persons who inject drugs (PWIDs) is poorly understood. This study aimed to elucidate whether PWIDs are at risk for hepatitis E. We performed HEV IgM, IgG and nucleic acid detection on a cohort of 91 PWIDs and 91 age-and sex-matched organ donors. Blood HEV IgG was measured using the WHO HEV antibody standard. The effects of age, gender and addictive injection use on HEV serostatus and concentration were assessed. HEV IgG seroprevalence was 42/91 (46.2%) in the PWID group and 20/91 (22%) in the donor group (odds ratio = 3.04 (1.59–5.79), p = 0.0006). The median HEV IgG concentration was 5.8 U/mL (IQR: 2.5–7.9) in the PWID group and 2.1 U/mL (IQR: 1.2–5.3) in the donor group (p = 0.005). Increasing age and addictive injection use were significantly associated with HEV IgG serostatus, but only addictive injection use was associated with HEV IgG concentration (p = 0.024). We conclude that PWIDs are at increased risk for hepatitis E and are prone to repeated HEV exposure and reinfection as indicated by higher HEV IgG concentrations.
KW - Hepatitis E
KW - Persons who inject drugs
KW - Seroepidemiology
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U2 - 10.3390/microorganisms8050675
DO - 10.3390/microorganisms8050675
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85084358556
SN - 2076-2607
VL - 8
JO - Microorganisms
JF - Microorganisms
IS - 5
M1 - 675
ER -