comparison between the frequency of hepatitis e virus among major thalassemia patients with control group in mashhad, north east of iran

Background: hepatitis e, a viral infectious disease transmitted through contaminated food and water, can vary from a simple asymptomatic infection to a lethal disease. patients with frequent blood transfusion have more positive serology test than the others; also patients undergoing dialysis that continuously receive blood have higher serological infection rate. the current study aimed at determining the prevalence of hepatitis e virus (hev) in patients with thalassemia major in mashhad, iran, compared with a healthy control group. methods: the study was performed on 150 patients with thalassemia and 150 blood donors attending mashhad blood transfusion organization laboratory. a 5-ml peripheral blood sample was taken from each person. after the separation of plasma/serum, the samples were stored at -20°c until testing. igm and igg antibodies of the samples were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) technique. then, the collected data were analyzed by spss version 21 and minitab software. results: in the group of patients, 89 males (59.3%) and 61 females (7/40%), and in the control group 138 male (92%) and 12 females (8%) were enrolled. according to the results of the tests, 13 (8.6%) subjects in the control group and 4 (2.6%) in the patients group had hev infection. there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of age. for a comparison between the 2 groups of patients and controls, abnormal hematological parameters including red blood cell (rbc), hematocrit (hct), and hemoglobin (hb) distribution were considered using the mann-whitney test. distribution of blood groups in the study groups was significant, but that of hematological parameters was insignificant. conclusions: based on the results of the current study, hev was detected in a few cases of patients with thalassemia major.