Association With HIV and Environmental

Background. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection causes major epidemics of infectious hepatitis, with high mor-tality rates in pregnant women. Recent reports indicate that HEV coinfections with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may have a more protracted course. However, the impact of HEV infections in communities heavily affected by HIV remains poorly studied. We set out to examine age-related seroprevalence in a community where we have previously carried out studies on environmental enteropathy. Methods. Blood samples from 194 children and 106 adults were examined for immunoglobulin G and immu-noglobulin M antibodies for HEV. HEV data were correlated with HIV status and morphometric analysis of small intestinal biopsies. Results. Seroprevalence rose throughout childhood, from 8 % in children aged 1–4 years, to 36 % in children aged 10–14 years. In adults, the overall prevalence was 42%, with 28 % in HIV-seronegative adults and 71 % in HIV-seropositive adults (odds ratio, 6.2; 95 % confidence interval, 2.2–18; P =.0001). In adults, villous height and crypt depth measurements showed that HEV seropositivity was associated with worse enteropathy (P =.05 and P =.005, respectively). Conclusions. HEV infection is common in Zambia. In adults it is strongly associated with HIV status, and also with environmental enteropathy