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Review
. 2020 Oct 20:11:100186.
doi: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2020.100186. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Hepatitis E in Sub Saharan Africa - A significant emerging disease

Husein Bagulo  1   2 , Ayodele O Majekodunmi  1   2   3 , Susan C Welburn  1   3
Affiliations
Review

Hepatitis E in Sub Saharan Africa - A significant emerging disease

Husein Bagulo et al. One Health. .

Abstract

Hepatitis E is an emerging endemic disease found across the African continent, but there are clear differences in epidemiology between North Africa and countries south of the Sahara. In this systematic review, Google scholar and PubMed databases were searched for peer-reviewed articles on HEV epidemiology. Publications meeting our inclusion criteria were critically reviewed to extract consistent findings and identify knowledge gaps. Hepatitis E has been reported in 25 of the 49 countries in Sub Saharan Africa. Mortality rates of 1-2% in the general population and ~ 20% in pregnant women. Outbreaks were closely linked to refugees and Internally Displaced Persons in camps which accounted for 50% of reported outbreaks. There was very little research and concrete evidence for sources of contamination and transmission routes. There are indications of zoonotic transmission of Hepatitis E Virus infection but further research in these fields is required.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
literature selection process.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Distribution of HEV publications and genotypes and in Sub Saharan Africa.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
HEV publications in Sub Saharan Africa.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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