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Blood transfusion is unlikely to be a source for hepatitis E virus transmission in India

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Abstract

Introduction

Transmission of hepatitis E virus (HEV) through transfusion has been reported from countries where genotype 3 virus is predominant. Data from countries with predominantly genotype 1 HEV, such as India, are limited. We studied the risk of HEV transmission following transfusion of blood or blood components in India.

Methods

Adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery who received transfusion of blood or blood products in the peri-operative period and who lacked history of any transfusion or surgery in the preceding 1 year were studied. A pre-transfusion blood specimen was collected for IgG anti-HEV antibody test. For the participants who were seronegative for anti-HEV, follow up specimens were collected at every 2–3-month intervals for up to 6 months after surgery and were tested for IgM and IgG anti-HEV antibodies.

Results

Of the 335 participants originally enrolled, 191 (57%) could be followed up. Of them, 103 (53.9%) were seropositive for HEV IgG at baseline and were excluded. Of the remaining 88 participants (age 42 ± 14.1 years; 55 [63%] male), none reported hepatitis-like illness during the follow up period of 81 ± 23 days. Also, none of these 88 participants was found to have seroconversion to anti-HEV IgM or IgG positivity in the follow up specimens.

Conclusion

Transfusion-mediated transmission of HEV was not observed in our cohort and may be infrequent in the Indian population, where genotype 1 is the predominant HEV type.

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Funding

This work was supported by an intramural research grant from the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, to AG. HK was supported by a grant from the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, 226 014, India

    Vijay J. Halkurike, Amit Goel, Harshita Katiyar & Rakesh Aggarwal

  2. Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, 226 014, India

    Surendra Kumar Agarwal & Shantanu Pande

Authors
  1. Vijay J. Halkurike
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  2. Amit Goel
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  3. Harshita Katiyar
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  4. Surendra Kumar Agarwal
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  5. Shantanu Pande
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  6. Rakesh Aggarwal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rakesh Aggarwal.

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Conflict of interest

VJH, AG, HK, SKA, SP, and RA declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics statement

The study was performed conforming to the Helsinki declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 and 2008 concerning human and animal rights, and the authors followed the policy concerning informed consent as shown on Springer.com. The study was approved by our institution’s Ethics Committee, and each participant provided a written informed consent.

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Halkurike, V.J., Goel, A., Katiyar, H. et al. Blood transfusion is unlikely to be a source for hepatitis E virus transmission in India. Indian J Gastroenterol 39, 161–164 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12664-020-01033-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12664-020-01033-y

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