الفهرس 
Hepatitis E Virus Infection
Risk factors for HEV infectionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Abstract
Background:Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is one of the common causes of acute viral hepatitis in the world. Due to nonspecific symptoms and a self-limited disease course, it is frequently underdiagnosed. Human infection with HEV has two distinct epidemiological patterns. In areas of poor sanitation, HEV1 and HEV2 are transmitted between humans by the fecal-oral route, usually via contaminated water, while in developed countries; HEV3 and HEV4 are transmitted zoonotically from animal reservoirs.
Aim of the Work: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of anti-HEV IgG antibodies as an indicator of past hepatitis E infection among a group of Egyptian children and adolescents and to evaluate the parents’ knowledge about the mode of transmission, symptoms and prevention of Hepatitis E.
Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at general Pediatrics Clinic in Children Hospital Ain Shams University and included 188 subjects.
Results: Seroprevalence of HEV igG using ELISA represented 7.4% of participants .The age of patients ranged from 1 to 16 years with a mean of 6.56 ± 3.77 years and slight predominance of male gender (54.3%) with male to female ratio 1.2:1. Almost half of the patients were from rural areas and belong to very low and low socioeconomic class , about 77% of the parents depend on audio-visual sources for health education
Conclusion: Seroprevalence of HEV igG was7.4% among the participants , it’s common in urban areas and associated with socioeconomic class , animal contact was the prevalent risk factor, the level of knowledge regarding HEV was poor in 97.5% of paticipants , yet the practice scores were higher than knowledge scores. Parents’ practices was protective aginst HEV infection.