Hepatitis A and Hepatitis E Virus in Patients with Acute Hepatitis – a Three-Year Hospital-Based, Retrospective Study

Hepatitis A (HAV) and hepatitis E (HEV) are widespread hepatitis viruses causing usually acute he¬patic disease with benign outcome. The current study aims to investigate the etiological role of HAV and HEV in the hospitalized patients with symptoms of acute hepatitis. We retrospectively examined the num¬ber of anti-HEV IgM and anti-HAV IgM positive serum samples obtained for a three-year period (2016- 2018) in the Virology Laboratory of University Hospital St. Marina, Varna, Bulgaria. Anti-HEV IgM was detected in 16.0% and anti-HAV IgM – in 9.5% of the tested samples. Acute HEV affected mainly men (19.7% positive anti-HEV IgM male samples versus 10.3% female), while HAV was more prevalent in women (12.5% positive female samples versus 7.4% male). HAV infected mainly young individuals, while HEV predominated in older ages. Finally, the cases of HAV and HEV were distributed all year long but they are more prevalent in the cold months. HEV clearly dominates in the epidemiology of fecal-orally transmitted hepatitis among hospitalized patients in Varna. This shows the increasing importance of HEV for public health and the need for a specific nationwide measure to control the spread of the infection.