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. 2018 Dec 7;13(12):e0208934.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0208934. eCollection 2018.

Hepatitis E prevalence in French Polynesian blood donors

Chloé Dimeglio  1 , Frédéric Beau  2 , Julien Broult  2 , Patrice Gouy  2 , Jacques Izopet  1   3 , Stéphane Lastère  4 , Florence Abravanel  1   3
Affiliations

Hepatitis E prevalence in French Polynesian blood donors

Chloé Dimeglio et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The HEV seroprevalence in mainland France is elevated (22.4%). In contrast, anti-HEV seroprevalence appears to be lower in Oceania. However, none is available for French Polynesia. We assessed the anti-HEV IgG and IgM prevalence on samples from 300 consecutive blood donors living on Tahiti and Moorea islands. Epidemiological information was collected using a specific questionnaire. Overall IgM seroprevalence was 0.6% and overall IgG seroprevalence was 7.7%. The presence of anti-HEV IgG was associated with increasing age (p = 0.01), eating chicken offal (p = 0.01) and cooked rabbit (p = 0.02). Conversely, eating fafaru-traditional Polynesian condiment-was associated with a lower rate of anti-HEV IgG (p<0.01).). All donors who surfed or practiced va'a (traditional outrigger canoë) were HEV seronegative. The Polynesian lifestyle and the particular food consumption patterns-especially the very well cooked pork-may be the key to understand the low HEV seroprevalence in French Polynesia.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. IgG prevalence by age group in French Polynesia.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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