HEPATITIS E VIRUS INFECTION AMONG CASES OF ACUTE VIRAL HEPATITIS IN ALEXANDRIA (EGYPT)

Abstract

Hepatitis E virus (REV) infection results in hepatitis E, an acute and self-limited disease. The virus is transmitted in a faecal-oral manner and is a major cause of viral hepatitis in much of the developing world, where it causes rampant sporadic infections and large epidemics.

A curious feature of hepatitis E is the unusually high rates of mortality that are observed in pregnant women, in whom the disease is exacerbated by the development of fulminant liver disease.

REV is a spherical, nonenveloped virus that is approximately 32-

34 nm in diameter. The REV gemone is a single- stranded, positive serise, polyadenylated RNA molecule, approximately 7.5 kilobases in length. Three open reading frames (ORFs) have been identified; ORFl codes for non-structural proteins responsible for replication of the viral genome, ORF2 codes for structural proteins, including the capsid protein, and ORF3 codes for a protein appears to be involved in virus-host interaction.

On the basis of structural and physiochemical properties REV has been classified in family calciviridae, genus calcivirus. However, its