A cross-sectional study was conducted of 500 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected adults frequency matched on age, sex, and community to 500 HIV-uninfected individuals in the Rakai District, Uganda to evaluate seroprevalence of anti-hepatitis E virus (HEV) IgG antibodies. HEV seroprevalence was 47%, and 1 HIV-infected individual was actively infected with a genotype 3 virus. Using modified Poisson regression, male sex (prevalence ratios [PR] = 1.247; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.071-1.450) and chronic hepatitis B virus infection (PR = 1.377; 95% CI, 1.090-1.738) were associated with HEV seroprevalence. HIV infection status (PR = 0.973; 95% CI, 0.852-1.111) was not associated with HEV seroprevalence. These data suggest there is a large burden of prior exposure to HEV in rural Uganda.
Keywords: HEV seroprevalence; Rakai; Uganda; hepatitis E virus; viral hepatitis.
Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2017. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.