Rift Valley fever among children and adolescents in Southwestern Saudi Arabia

Rift Valley fever [RVF] virus has expanded its geographical range, reaching Asia in 2000. This work investigated RVF seroprevalence among children born after the 2000-2001 outbreak in Saudi Arabia and compared it with the seroprevalence of adolescents born before the outbreak. In a seroepidemiological study in Southwestern Saudi Arabia [Jazan, Aseer, and Al-Qunfuda], a random sample of 389 children and adolescents was investigated. Data were collected regarding the subjects' sociodemographic status, housing conditions, and animal contact. Blood samples were collected and tested for RVF-specific IgG and IgM. None of the study samples were found to be seropositive for anti-RVF virus IgM. None of the study subjects aged 1-8 years [born after the outbreak] were positive for RVF-specific IgG. In contrast, 14 subjects [4.8%] aged 9-19 years [born before the outbreak] were positive for RVF-specific IgG. Among adolescents in our study, 4.9% were positive for anti-RVF IgG. This study showed that among adolescents, a history of contact with aborted animals [aOR = 13.361, 95% CI = 5.091-35.072] and transporting aborted animals [aOR = 18.861, 95% CI = 11.125-31.622] were significant risk factors. Despite the low virus activity recently reported among animals, neither clinically apparent RVF infections nor outbreaks among humans have been documented, indicating that the control measures taken by the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Health are effective

role of hepatitis E virus infection among patients with acute viral hepatitis in southern Saudi Arabia

We investigated etiology of acute sporadic viral hepatitis in southern in Saudi Arabia in a series of 132 patients admitted with acute viral hepatitis. Of these cases, 108 [51.8%] were due to acute hepatitis A virus infection, of which 11 [8.3%] patients had been previously exposed to hepatitis E virus, and another 10 [7.6%] were chronic carriers of hepatitis B virus. These cases [2.3%] were acute hepatitis B virus infection. The overall prevalence of hepatitis E I[g]G antibodies was found to be 9.1%. The remaining 21 [15.9%] patients were tested for hepatitis E I[g]M, EBV-VCA I[g]G antibodies by sensitive enzyme immunoassays. In none of them could hepatitis E I[g]M, EBV-VCA I[g]M or hepatitis C I[g]G antibodies be demonstrated, and these patients were thus considered as acute non-A, non-B hepatitis. Acute hepatitis C virus infection, however, could not be ruled out from this group. We therefore concluded that the majority of clinically apparent viral hepatitis cases were due to HAV, while HBV accounted for a small proportion of the cases. Clinically apparent HEV infection dose not appear to be common in the population studied, since even those with serologic evidence of previous exposure to HEV did no recall a history suggestive of acute viral hepatitis