Prevalence of hepatitis E virus viremia and antibodies among healthy blood donors in India

Background Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is transmitted primarily through contaminated water and food. Recently, HEV viremia in blood donors and transfusion-related transmission of HEV have been reported, leading to calls to screen donated blood for this virus. However, these data are from regions where genotype 3 HEV is predominant. In India, where human infections are caused only by genotype 1 HEV, the frequency of subclinical HEV viremia is unknown. Methods Minipools of sera prepared from three donor units each from our institution's blood bank in Lucknow, India, were tested for HEV RNA using a sensitive amplification-based assay. A randomly selected subset was also tested for IgG anti-HEV antibodies using a commercial (Wantai) immunoassay. Results Sera from 1799 donors (median [range] age 30 [18–63] years; 1746 [97.0%] men) were collected (June–July 2016, 900; November–December 2016, 899). Of these, 17 (0.95%), 16 (0.90%), and 3 (0.17%) tested positive for HBsAg, anti-HCV, and anti-HIV antibodies, respectively. None of the donors tested positive for HEV RNA. Of 633 randomly selected donors (age 30 [18–63] years, 613 [96.8%] male) tested for IgG anti-HEV, 383 (60.5%) tested positive. Seropositivity rate increased with age, being 70/136 (52%), 177/299 (59%), 100/154 (65%), 30/34 (88%), and 6/10 (60%) in the 18–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, and 55 years or older age groups, respectively. Conclusions In healthy blood donors from northern India, HEV viremia is infrequent though anti-HEV antibody prevalence is high. This suggests that asymptomatic HEV viremia may be less frequent in areas with genotype 1 predominance than those with genotype 3 predominance.