Seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus infection amongst pediatric acute Leukemias at the national cancer institute in Egypt

ABSTRACT

Hepatitis E virus [HEV] is one of the important causes of hepatitis epidemics in the developing world. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of HEV antibodies in pediatric acute leukemics. Setting: The pediatric service of the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Egypt. Subjects: One hundred and seventy five children, 88 newly diagnosed acute leukemic children and 87 healthy siblings of 42 of the patients as controls. ELISAtesting for anti-HEV IgM and anti-HEV IgG was done on the sera of the patients and controls. A higher exposure rate to HEV [IgG antibodies] was noticed in acute leukemia patients, 26/88 in comparison to 15/87, in the sibling control group. Acute HEV infection diagnosed by anti-HEV IgM Ab was higher in normal siblings [6%] compared to [2%] in leukemic children. Analysis showed that HEV seropositivity was seen mostly in leukemic children at preschool age [< 5 Y] and the exposure to HEV infection was higher among young adults [> 10 Y]. HEV seropositivity was higher among females leukemic children 15/26 [58%] compared to males 11/26 [42%]. Leukemic children living in rural area are exposed to a higher risk of hepatitis E infection [58%] compared to [42%] among urban population. Leukemic children with a previous history of blood transfusion showed significant increase in the seropositivity [69%] compared to [45%] in the non-transfused children. The data indicate a higher susceptibility of the children with acute leukemia for HEV infection. Ensuring a clean drinking water supply remains the best preventive strategy. Recombinant vaccines may be particularly useful for these patients