Hepatitis E Virus Infection in Patients Infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus in an Endemic Area in Iran

Some studies have suggested that hepatitis E virus is more frequent in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients and can progress to chronic infection. We aimed to determine the prevalence of hepatitis E virus antibodies and RNA in a series of 100 HIV-infected patients in Tehran, Iran, with comparison to 52 healthy HIV, hepatitis B and C-negative blood donors as controls. HIV-infected patients were also tested for hepatitis E virus-RNA. Among the HIV-infected patients, 10% had antibodies to hepatitis E virus - a finding not significantly different from the uninfected controls (11.5%). No HIV-infected patients had hepatitis E virus IgM antibodies nor did any have detectable hepatitis E virus-RNA. We found no associations between anti-hepatitis E virus IgG-seropositivity and age, sex, route of HIV acquisition, aminotransferases levels, CD4, antiretroviral therapy, hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus co-infection. Hepatitis E virus is relatively prevalent in our HIV-infected patients, although without evidence of chronic infection and no more common than among HIV-negative controls or the general population. For the present, we do not recommend routine screening for hepatitis E virus infection in HIV-infected patients in our moderately endemic region.