TruQuick™ HEV IgG/IgM

Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) is a nonenveloped, single- stranded RNA virus identified in 1990. Infection with HEV induces acute or subclinical liver disease similar to hepatitis A. HEV infections, endemic and frequently epidemic in developing countries, is seen also in developed countries in a sporadic form with or without a history of traveling to endemic area. The overall case-fatality is 0.5~3%, and much higher (15~25%) among pregnant women. A hypothesis that HEV infection is a zoonosis was presented in 1995. A swine HEV and later an avian HEV were identified and sequenced separately in 1997 and 2001. Since then, HEV infection include anti-HEV, viremia and feces excretion of HEV was seen in a wide variety of animals, ie, swine, rodents, wild monkeys, deer, cow, goats, dogs and chicken in both the developing and developed countries. It was reported that the consumption of uncooked deer meat infected with HEV led to acute hepatitis E in a human. HEV genome sequences can be detected in pork livers available in the supermarkets in Japan. With the discovery of conformational epitopes in HEV, HEV serology was further explored and understood. The phenomenon of long-lasting and protective antibodies to HEV was observed which greatly enhance the understanding of the diagnosis, epidemiology, zoonosis and vaccine development.