African Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 3(9) pp. 533-536 September, 2009 Available online http://www.academicjournals.org/ajmr ISSN 1996-0808 ©2009 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Anti hepatitis E virus antibodies in sick and healthy Individuals in Ekiti State, Nigeria O. A Adesina 1,2 *, M. O Japhet 1,2 , E. Donbraye 1,3 , T. E. Kumapayi 2 , and A. Kudoro 2 1 Department of Virology, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. 2 Department of Microbiology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun, State, Nigeria. 3 Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, College of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. Accepted 9 July, 2009 A cross-sectional serosurvey of 186 healthy and sick individuals between ages 3 and 72 years in Ekiti State, Nigeria was conducted for the presence of antibodies to hepatitis E virus (HEV) using a commercial enzyme immunoassay kit. Antibody to HEV was detected in 25(13.4%) of the samples analyzed. The prevalence of antibodies was greater among males (20%) than among females (11.3%) and increased with age for both sexes from 7.8% among subjects 11-20 years to 20% among subjects 61-70 years old. Five pregnant women (8.3%) and 4 (22.22%) children also had detectable anti HEV antibodies in them. Five (8.3%) healthy and 20(15.9%) sick individuals had detectable anti – HEV antibodies in them. There is a dearth of information about HEV infection in Ekiti State and in Nigeria as a whole thus making it difficult to compare with other states. HEV is likely to be endemic in the study areas as there are no portable water and good toilet facilities in most of the places. The pregnant women and the healthy but anti – HEV antibodies positive individuals suggest that HEV had been in the study area before the study was conducted. Key words: Hepatitis E Virus (HEV), seroprevalence, antibodies, endemic, immunoassay. INTRODUCTION Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an enterically transmitted virus implicated in the cause of viral hepatitis alongside hepa- titis A Virus (HAV) and other percutaneously transmitted viruses like hepatitis B, C, D and G. HEV is the only member of the genus Hepesvirus of the family Hepeviri- dae. It is a non-enveloped, single stranded, positive sense RNA virus (Purcell and Emerson, 2001). HEV infections have been known to produce self-limiting acute hepatitis with mortality as low as 1-3%. Case fatality rate in pregnant women is as high as 20% (Emerson and Purcell, 2004) while Yuel and Kaut (2006) placed it at 20- 30% especially those in the third trimester and it can cause premature birth (Vasickova et al., 2007). Hepatitis E is the only hepatitis virus that apparently *Corresponding author. E-mail: Adesinafat@yahoo.co.uk. Tel: +234 803 413 5898. has this virulent impact on pregnant women. Based on its mode of transmission, HEV infections have been found to mostly affect young adults. Poor hygienic conditions as a result of poor environ- mental sanitation facilities have been implicated in the wide distribution of HEV infections in Africa and Asia. This condition has made some developing countries of Asia and Africa and Mexico endemic for the virus and its infections (Smith, 2001). The spread of HEV to the Indus- trialized countries had been made possible via travelers to and from endemic regions (Piper-Jenks et al., 2000; Dawson et al., 1992). Sporadic cases of acute hepatitis E without an implicated travel history have also been reported in Europe and the United States (Dawson et al., 1992; Heath et al., 1995). The sequence analyses of HEV isolates obtained from sporadic cases in the US, Europe, Taiwan and Japan in people who had not traveled to countries where HEV is endemic revealed genetically divergent isolates