Seroepidemiology of Hepatitis E Virus in Iranian Soldiers

Aims: hepatitis e virus (hev) is recognized as a common cause of epidemic and sporadic viral hepatitis.hev outbreaks have been documented in some military forces in the world. the aim of this study was to evaluate anti-hev antibody in iranian soldiers.methods: in a cross-sectional study, 800 soldiers were selected by simple random sampling in tehran, iran in 2006. aquestionnaire of demographic data was completed and blood samples were obtained for anti-hev igg & igm antibody.data were analyzed using student t-test and chi-square using spss 12.results: all soldiers were male and their mean age was 19 ± 1.2. education level in 553 (69.1%) of them was highschool diploma or higher. anti-hev igg antibody was positive in only 9 (1.1%) of them and igm was negative in allsoldiers.conclusions: approximately 98% of soldiers were at risk for hev infection and before discovering an effective vaccine,preparation of healthy drinking water and personal hygiene education should be considered for prevention of hepatitise infection.