期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1994
卷号：91
期号：8
页码：3428-3432
DOI：10.1073/pnas.91.8.3428
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Many epidemics of water-borne hepatitis have occurred throughout India. These were thought to be epidemics of hepatitis A until 1980, when evidence for an enterically transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis was first reported. Subsequently, hepatitis E virus was discovered and most recent epidemics of enterically transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis have been attributed to hepatitis E virus infection. However, only a limited number of cases have been confirmed by immuno electron microscopy, polymerase chain reaction, or seroconversion. In the present study we have performed a retrospective seroepidemiologic study of 17 epidemics of water-borne hepatitis in India. We have confirmed that 16 of the 17 epidemics were caused at least in part by serologically closely related hepatitis E viruses. However, one epidemic, in the Andaman Islands, and possibly a significant minority of cases in other epidemics, appears to have been caused by a previously unrecognized hepatitis agent.
