The seroprevalence of anti-hepatitis E IgG antibodies in blood donors in the Greater Romagna area, Italy

Objective: Data about Hepatitis E virus (HEV) prevalence are variable in Europe and also limited inItaly.WeaimedtodescribetheseroprevalenceofimmunoglobulinG(IgG)antibodiesagainst HEV infection among blood donors (BDs) in the Greater Romagna area, North-Eastern Italy. Materials and Methods: All serum samples were at first screened for anti-HEV IgG antibodies by a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (DIA.PRO Diagnostic Bioprobes, Sesto San Giovanni (MI), Italy), used in our diagnostic routine and so considered as the reference test. Then, all serum samples were re-tested for anti-HEV IgG antibodies by the other two commercial ELISA (Wantai, Biologic Pharmacy Enterprise, Beijing, China; Euroimmun, Lübeck, Germany). The seroprevalence rate was calculated based on the immunoblotting (IB) assay confirmation. Results: A total of 500 BDs samples were tested by three commercial ELISA tests; positive and borderline results were confirmed by an IB assay. The overall anti-HEV IgG prevalence was 3.8% (CI: 2.303 – 5.871), 1.6% (CI: 0.693 – 3.128) and 2.8% (CI: 1.539 – 4.653) when samples were tested with DIA.PRO, Euroimmun and Wantai methods, respectively. The seroprevalence of IgG antibodies against HEV infection was found to be similar or lower than the previous reports in Italy. The results obtained by the different ELISA tests were similar. Conclusion: The data obtained in this study underline the need for achieving a harmonised testing algorithm that is necessary in order to be able to compare data from different studies. We suggest that the identification of potential HEV human infection should be added to the standard laboratory work-up for viral hepatitis.