Re-evaluación de seroprevalencia de virus hepatitis E

Reported seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in developed countries is between 0.3-53%. Published data relies on the assays used and its technical performance. Sensitivity on new available tests has improved, which has changed HEV seroprevalence around the world. We re-evaluated retrospectively, 178 serum samples of patients with previous anti HEV IgG determination between 2009 and 2012. Initial analysis was performed with ELISA kit Genelabs (Singapore), with 7.3% positivity. The reevaluation was done with ELISA kit AccuDiag TM HEV-IgG (Diagnostic Automation, United States), with reported sensitivity and specificity over 99.8%. With the new assay, 32.6% positive samples were found, significantly greater to the previous result (p<0.001) (4.5 times more). There were no differences in gender but a significant association between age and HEV IgG seropositivity was found (p<0.001). This suggests that previous testing might have underestimated HEV seroprevalence in Chile, which should be reevaluated using the new available test.