TY - JOUR AU - Li, Rong-Cheng AU - Ge, Sheng-Xiang AU - Li, Yan-Ping AU - Zheng, Ying-Jie AU - Nong, Yi AU - Guo, Qing-Shun AU - Zhang, Jun AU - Ng, Mun-Hon AU - Xia, Ning-Shao T1 - Seroprevalence of Hepatitis E Virus Infection, Rural Southern People’s Republic of China T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2006 VL - 12 IS - 11 SP - 1682 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Genotype 4 hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the dominant cause of hepatitis E in the People's Republic of China; swine are the principal reservoir. Our study was conducted in 8 rural communities of southern China, where families keep pigs near their homes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that 23 of 24 concurrent virus isolates from this region are genotype 4 strains. Among the study populations, immunoglobulin G anti-HEV seroprevalence accumulated with age at ≈1% per year for persons >60 years of age. After age 30 years, seroprevalence increased at higher rates for male than for female study participants. The overall seroprevalence was 43% (range 25%–66%) among the communities. Infection rates were higher for participants between 25 and 29 years of age. The results suggest that HEV infection probably has been endemic in southern China for <60 years, with swine being the principal reservoir of human HEV infection in recent years. KW - hepatitis E KW - seroepidemiology KW - endemics KW - swine KW - zoonosis KW - research KW - China DO - 10.3201/eid1211.060332 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/11/06-0332_article ER - End of Reference