HEPATITIS E - AN EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASE

Hepatitis E is listed on the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as one of the newly discovered Pathogens in the last twenty years. What is most alarming is that cases are spreading globally. The World Health Organization declares “(e)very year there are 20 million hepatitis E infections, over three million acute cases…and 70 000 hepatitis E-related deaths” (W.H.O.). The virus is caused by drinking water that has been contaminated. Hepatitis E is most often non-life threatening where symptoms in humans disappear after 4-6 weeks. However there are growing numbers of cases that prove to be fatal. Additional new “transmission routes have been identified” (W.H.O.) and this is cause for concern.

 “Hepatitis E is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis E virus: a non-enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus” (W.H.O.). The geographical distribution of Hepatitis E determines the strain of the virus. In poor developing countries like parts of Asia and Africa “genotype 1…is transmitted mainly through the faecal-oral route due to faecal contamination of drinking water” (W.H.O.). Overpopulation, poverty and poor maintenance and “low standards of sanitation increase the risk for transmission of the virus” (W.H.O.). Genotype 3 is most often found in developed countries with the resources and planning for sophisticated sanitation which means this does not spread and cause “community level outbreaks” (W.H.O.).

Water contamination is the cause of most of the hepatitis E outbreaks. Additional outbreaks can occur from “zoonotic transmission from animals to humans…transfusion of infected blood products…(and) vertical transmission from a pregnant woman to her fetus” (W.H.O.). New findings have found that eating raw or improperly cooked shellfish can cause outbreaks in areas susceptible to the virus. Hepatitis E is “no longer confined to Asia and developing countries but has also become a concern of the developed nations” (NCBI).

Because hepatitis E is not contained and new cases are being found globally, this is classified as an emerging infectious disease. If left unchecked it can adversely affect populations of areas where it crops up. Many undeveloped and poor countries already feel the effects of the disease. Many poor people have no access to medical attention, and if they did, they may not be able to afford it. There is scientific proof that diseases and organisms can mutate and change becoming more dangerous. Who’s to say this disease won’t do the same. It could become a wide-spread endemic and wipe out entire cultures. If more and more expectant mothers were infected by Hepatitis E, their newborns would be born with it, and the infant mortality rate would be the cause of a drop in population. The ease of travel could allow this virus to be transported to unaffected areas and migration, along with climatic changes could mutate this organism further.

 

Women walk for miles to carry water back to their families
Photo source: Bing photo images

 How sad that this disease currently affects so many cultures in underdeveloped countries. Because they can’t afford to address the main issue of sanitation, their citizens pay the price. The only thing that could reduce the hepatitis E virus is money. This would provide structure, training and education for “maintaining quality standards for public water supplies; establishing proper disposal systems to eliminate sanitary waste” (W.H.O.). Wouldn’t it be an easy fix to have science come up with a little pill to drop into the water to sanitize it completely, and make it affordable to those countries in need?

Sources:

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. US National Library of Medicine. April 03, 2012. Web, 23 April, 2013. http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/emerging/pages/list.aspx

World Health Organization. Media Center. Hepatitis E. July, 2012. Web, 23 April, 2013http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs280/en/