Kenji AbeTian Cheng LiXin DingKhin Maung WinPradeep Krishna ShresthaVo Xuan QuangTrinh Thi NgocTeresa Casanovas TaltavullAndrei V. SmirnovVasily F. UchaikinPairoj LuengrojanakulHongxi GuAbdel Rahman El-ZayadiAlfred M. PrinceKaoru KikuchiNaohiko MasakiAyano InuiTetsutaro SataNaokazu TakedaNational Institute of Infectious DiseasesYangon General HospitalTribhuvan University Teaching HospitalCho Ray HospitalBach Mai HospitalHospital Universitari de BellvitgePirogov Russian National Research Medical University (RNRMU)Mahidol UniversityHarbin Medical UniversityCairo Liver CenterNew York Blood CenterOkinawa Chubu HospitalNational Center for Global Health and MedicineInternational University of Health and Welfare2018-08-202018-08-202006-01-01Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health. Vol.37, No.1 (2006), 90-95012515622-s2.0-33744467382https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/23877We conducted seroepidemiological studies on antibody prevalence to hepatitis E virus (HEV) in 5,233 sera from 11 countries to ascertain the present state of HEV infection on a global basis. The prevalence of anti-HEV IgG increased with age in these tested countries, but the rate of antibody positivity was over 20% in the 16-30 year-old group in most of the participating countries, except for Japan, the USA, and Spain. Of patients with acute hepatitis of unknown etiology from Nepal, 56% (14/25) were positive for the IgM class of anti-HEV antibody. In addition, HEV RNAs in the serum from 3 Nepali patients who had the IgM antibody were detected by nested PCR and all of the HEV genes isolated belonged to genotype 1. Our results indicate that HEV is spreading worldwide, not only in developing countries, but also in more industrialized countries than previously thought.Mahidol UniversityMedicineReviewSCOPUS