Abstract
Background: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is a self-limited hepatitis and the most common cause of acute adult hepatitis in Asia.
Young adults and middle-aged populations are more likely to be infected than other age groups.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of anti-HEV among injection drug users (IDUs) compared to nonIDUs.
Patients and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study performed on 131 IDUs referred to Farshchian Hospital, Hamadan, Iran and 131 nonIDUs
selected from healthy visitors between March 2011 and March 2012. Anti-HEV IgG was measured in serum by ELISA method (DiaPro,
Milan, Italy). Data including age, gender, education, location and duration of injection drug used were collected using a questionnaire.
Results: In this study, the seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus antibody among IDUs group was 6.1%, and 1.5% among non-IDU group (Odds
Ratio = 5.48; CI = 1/069-22/84), indicating that injection drug users were almost five and a half times more than non-IDUs at risk of HEV
infection (P = 0.053). There was no significant association between seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus and education level (P = 0.46),
duration of injection (P = 0.38) and location (P = 0.19).
Conclusions: Seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus among IDUs group was higher than non-IDU group, which might be due to possible
blood transmission of HEV among IDUs.