Outbreak of Hepatitis E in Urban Bangladesh Resulting in Maternal and Perinatal Mortality

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Clin Infect Dis
• Personal Author:
  Gurley, Emily S. ; Hossain, M. Jahangir ; Paul, Repon C. ; Sazzad, Hossain M. S. ; Islam, M. Saiful ; Parveen, Shahana ; Faruque, Labib I. ; Husain, Mushtuq ; Ara, Khorshed ; Jahan, Yasmin ; Rahman, Mahmudur ; Luby, Stephen P.
• Description:
  Hepatitis E virus (HEV) causes outbreaks of jaundice associated with maternal mortality. Four deaths among pregnant women with jaundice occurred in an urban community near Dhaka, Bangladesh, in late 2008 and were reported to authorities in January 2009. We investigated the etiology and risk factors for jaundice and death.|Field workers identified suspected cases, defined as acute onset of yellow eyes or skin, through house-to-house visits. A subset of persons with suspected HEV was tested for immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies to HEV to confirm infection. We used logistic regression analysis to identify risk factors for HEV disease and for death. We estimated the increased risk of perinatal mortality associated with jaundice during pregnancy.|We identified 4751 suspected HEV cases during August 2008-January 2009, including 17 deaths. IgM antibodies to HEV were identified in 56 of 73 (77%) case-patients tested who were neighbors of the case-patients who died. HEV disease was significantly associated with drinking municipally supplied water. Death among persons with HEV disease was significantly associated with being female and taking paracetamol (acetaminophen). Among women who were pregnant, miscarriage and perinatal mortality was 2.7 times higher (95% confidence interval, 1.2-6.1) in pregnancies complicated by jaundice.|This outbreak of HEV was likely caused by sewage contamination of the municipal water system. Longer-term efforts to improve access to safe water and license HEV vaccines are needed. However, securing resources and support for intervention will rely on convincing data about the endemic burden of HEV disease, particularly its role in maternal and perinatal mortality.
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Adult Aged Antibodies, Viral/blood Articles And Commentaries Case-Control Studies Child Child, Preschool Disease Outbreaks Female Hepatitis E/epidemiology Hepatitis E/mortality Hepatitis E Virus/immunology Humans Immunoglobulin M/blood Infant Infant, Newborn Jaundice/etiology Male Maternal Death Middle Aged Perinatal Death Pregnancy Pregnancy Complications, Infectious Pregnancy Outcome Risk Factors Sewage/virology Water Supply Young Adult

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• Source:
  Clin Infect Dis. 2014; 59(5):658-665.
• Pubmed ID:
  24855146
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4130310
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  U01 CI000298/CI/NCPDCID CDC HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  Bangladesh
• Volume:
  59
• Issue:
  5
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:f3757c64e3880ef246195a2ecd5caabcd8f9fc7356ad10e5b56f1f69537a975e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/24854/cdc_24854_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 137.44 KB ]