Seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus among blood donors on Corsica, France, 2017

Lisandru Capai (1) , Nathanaël Hoze (2) , Jacques Chiaroni (3, 4) , Sylvie Gross (5) , Rachid Djoudi (5) , Rémi Charrel (6) , Jacques Izopet (7) , Frédéric Bosseur (8) , Stephane Priet (6) , Simon Cauchemez (2) , Xavier de Lamballerie (6) , Alessandra Falchi (1) , Pierre Gallian (6, 9, 5)

1 EA7310 - Laboratoire de Virologie [UNIV Corse-Inserm]
2 Modélisation mathématique des maladies infectieuses - Mathematical modelling of Infectious Diseases
3 EFS - Alpes-Méditerranée - Etablissement Français du Sang - Alpes-Méditerranée
4 ADES - Anthropologie bio-culturelle, Droit, Ethique et Santé
5 EFS - Etablissement Français du Sang [La Plaine Saint-Denis]
6 UVE - Unité des Virus Emergents
7 CPTP - Centre de Physiopathologie Toulouse Purpan
8 SPE - Sciences pour l'environnement
9 EFS - Etablissement Français du Sang Provence-Alpes Côte-d'Azur et Corse

BackgroundHepatitis E virus (HEV) is an emerging zoonotic pathogen and an important cause of acute viral hepatitis in European countries. Corsica Island has been previously identified as a hyperendemic area for HEV.AimOur aim was to characterise the prevalence and titres of IgG antibodies to HEV among blood donors on Corsica and establish a model of the annual force of infection.MethodsBetween September 2017 and January 2018, 2,705 blood donations were tested for anti-HEV IgG using the Wantai HEV IgG enzyme immunoassay.ResultsThe overall seroprevalence was 56.1%. In multivariate analysis, seroprevalence was higher in men than in women (60.0% vs 52.2%; p < 0.01), increased with age and was significantly higher among donors born on Corsica (60.6% vs 53.2%; p < 0.01). No significant difference was observed between the five districts of the island. IgG anti-HEV titres were mostly low (70% of positive donors had titres < 3 IU/mL). In Corsican natives, increasing seroprevalence by age could be explained by models capturing a loss of immunity (annual probability of infection: 4.5%; duration of immunity: 55 years) or by age-specific probabilities of infection (3.8% for children, 1.3% for adults).ConclusionWe confirmed the high HEV seroprevalence on Corsica and identified three aspects that should be further explored: (i) the epidemiology in those younger than 18 years, (ii) common sources of contamination, in particular drinking water, that may explain the wide exposure of the population, and (iii) the actual protection afforded by the low IgG titres observed and the potential susceptibility to secondary HEV infection.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Lisandru Capai, Nathanaël Hoze, Jacques Chiaroni, Sylvie Gross, Rachid Djoudi, et al.. Seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus among blood donors on Corsica, France, 2017. Eurosurveillance, 2020, 25 (5), pp.1-9. ⟨10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.5.1900336⟩. ⟨hal-02493954⟩