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HEV antibody prevalence decreased in Germany across 15 years

Prevalence of anti-hepatitis E virus infection declined in southeastern Germany by more than 15% from 1996 to 2011, according to new study data.

Serum samples from a cohort of 2,184 adults, 1,092 from 1996 and 1,092 from 2011, were collected and analyzed to compare the prevalence of HEV antibodies. Each group included 91 women and 91 men across six age groups with 10-year increments, beginning with those aged 20 to 29 years and ending in those aged 70 to 79 years. Researchers used HEV immunoglobulin G enzyme immunoassay and HEV IgG immunoblot to test sera.

Immunoassay results indicated that the prevalence of anti-HEV was greater among those in the 1996 group compared with the 2011 group (50.7% vs. 34.3%; P<.001). Corresponding values from the immunoblot analysis also were greater in the 1996 group (20.5% vs. 14.5%; P<.001). Researchers wrote that HEV prevalence increased in participants aged 20 to 59 years in 1996 and among those aged 30 to 69 years in the 2011 group.

Further analysis showed lower HEV prevalence rates in 2011 for the 20 to 29 (P=.001), 30 to 39 (P<.001), 40 to 49 (P<.001) and 50 to 59 age groups (P=.002). The greatest difference in HEV prevalence rates between 1996 and 2011 was observed in the 30 to 39 age group; prevalence was 36.3% lower when measured by immunoassay (P<.001) and 14.9% lower when measured by immunoblot (P<.001) in the 2011 cohort.

“Our study shows that the anti-HEV prevalence has significantly decreased in the past decades in southeastern Germany,” the researchers concluded. “The risk of HEV infection was likely higher in the first half of the 20th century and has been decreasing in the past decades.”

Disclosure: Jürgen J. Wenzel, MD, and Wolfgang Jilg, MD, have received lecture payments from Mikrogen Diagnostik.