Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 14, 2016; 22(22): 5143-5153
Published online Jun 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i22.5143
Epidemiology of hepatitis E virus in Iran
Reza Taherkhani, Fatemeh Farshadpour
Reza Taherkhani, Fatemeh Farshadpour, Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, School of Medicine, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr 7514633341, Iran
Reza Taherkhani, Persian Gulf Biomedical Research Center, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr 7514633341, Iran
Fatemeh Farshadpour, Persian Gulf Tropical Medicine Research Center, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr 7514633341, Iran
Author contributions: Taherkhani R and Farshadpour F equally contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare there are no conflicts of interest in the content of this review.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Fatemeh Farshadpour, PhD, Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, School of Medicine, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Moallem Street, P. O. Box 3631, Bushehr 7514633341, Iran. f.farshadpour@yahoo.com
Telephone: +98-91-71712653 Fax: +98-77-14550235
Received: March 22, 2016
Peer-review started: March 23, 2016
First decision: April 14, 2016
Revised: April 22, 2016
Accepted: May 4, 2016
Article in press: May 4, 2016
Published online: June 14, 2016
Abstract

Iran is known as an endemic country for hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection, while there are variations in the epidemiology of HEV infection throughout the country. The available epidemiological studies in different regions of Iran show HEV seroprevalence of 1.1%-14.2% among general population, 4.5% -14.3% among blood donors, 6.1%-22.8% among injecting drug users, 6.3%-28.3% among hemodialysis patients, 1.6%-11.3% among patients infected with other hepatitis viruses, 27.5% among patients with chronic liver disease, 30.8% among kidney transplant recipient patients, and 10%-16.4% among human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients. These variations reflect differences in the status of public health and hygiene, risk factors, and routes of transmission in different regions and groups. Therefore, it is necessary to review the epidemiology of HEV infection to determine the most prevalent risk factors and routes of transmission, and to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive strategies employed in the public health services of the country. Moreover, the other epidemiological aspects of HEV, including the genotypic pattern, extra hepatic manifestations, and incidence of chronic infection need to be investigated among Iranian population to expand the current knowledge on the epidemiology of HEV and to clarify the real burden of HEV infection. Therefore, this review was performed to provide a general overview regarding the epidemiology of HEV in Iran.

Keywords: Hepatitis E virus, General population, Blood donors, Injecting drug users, Hemodialysis, Immunocompromised patients, Chronic liver disease, Prevalence, Epidemiology, Iran

Core tip: Iran is considered as an endemic country for hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection, while there are variations in the epidemiology and prevalence of hepatitis E throughout the country. These variations reflect differences in the life styles, status of public health, risk factors, and routes of transmission in different groups and geographical regions of Iran. Therefore, this study was conducted to review the epidemiological aspects of HEV infection in Iran.