Abstract
Background: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is a major public health problem in developing countries, which could progress to an acute
self-limited hepatitis. Young adults and middle-aged people are more likely to be infected than children and elderly persons. The disease
is usually mild in general population; severe infection is more seen among pregnant women and leads to a high rate of mortality in this
population.
Objectives: This study aimed to assess seroprevalence of HEV infection and related risk factors among pregnant women referred to
Fatemieh Hospital in Hamadan, Iran.
Patients and Methods: A total of 1050 pregnant women were included in this prospective cross-sectional study, conducted from 2010
to 2011. Anti-HEV specific IgG was measured with ELISA method. A questionnaire containing research purposes was also fulfilled for each
participant.
Results: The mean age of pregnant women was 27.2 ± 5.6 years. The overall seroprevalence of anti-HEV was 7.4%. There was a significant
association between anti-HEV seropositivity and age (P < 0.001), degree of education (P = 0.017), number of household members (P =
0.002), siblings (P = 0.005), and parities (P = 0.007). However, no significant relationship was observed between positive anti-HEV and
variables such as place of residence, occupation, history of animal contacts, agricultural activities, type of drinking water, and the method
of washing vegetables (P > 0.05).
Conclusions: According to the results, 92.6% of pregnant women were anti-HEV negative. However, there is no available effective vaccine
for its prevention in human yet. Therefore, education about environmental and personal hygiene before and during pregnancy may be
helpful for decreasing the rate of HEV infection in this high risk population.