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Hepatitis E More and more infected patients in Germany
Hepatitis E is an infectious disease that can lead to liver failure in those affected. In severe cases, the disease ends fatally. Until now, hepatitis E was widespread, especially in Africa and Asia, where around 20 million people are infected with the virus each year. Mostly polluted drinking water is the source of the pathogen. Meanwhile, more and more hepatitis E cases are reported in Germany. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the cause of the disease is usually the consumption of contaminated pork and game meat in this country.
Most hepatitis E cases are registered in Africa and Asia
Doctors are increasingly confronted with hepatitis E cases in Germany. Last year, 670 of these liver diseases were registered, an increase of more than 46 percent compared to 2013, according to the RKI. "The trend is clearly increasing," said RKI epidemiologist Mirko Faber in an interview with the news agency "dpa". However, he attributed the increase not to a rapid spread of the pathogen in Europe, but to improved diagnostics and increased sensitivity of doctors.
Infections of the liver with hepatitis E viruses can have life-threatening consequences. (Image: bluebay2014 / fotolia.com) For a long time, hepatitis E was considered to be an infectious disease imported from Asia and Africa. There, the virus is mainly transmitted by contaminated drinking water, reported a spokeswoman for the Brandenburg Ministry of Health in the run-up to World Hepatitis Day on July 28, the news agency.
Hepatitis E infections can be fatal
RKI estimates assume 20,000 new infections in Asia and Africa each year. "Many people go through hepatitis E without knowing it," reports Faber. The infection often occurs with only mild symptoms, which are also mostly unspecific, such as fatigue and body aches. But it could also be fever and jaundice occur, informs the RKI. In most cases, the complaints resolve within a few weeks. The infection is more common but without any signs of disease. The incubation period is up to 60 days.
On the other hand, an acute hepatitis E infection can take a severe course, at the end of which the patient succumbs to the disease. According to the RKI, up to 65,000 people die each year in Asia and Africa. In some countries, the disease has a mortality rate of up to four percent. Hepatitis E is particularly dangerous in people with previous liver damage, immune-compromised patients such as cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and pregnancy.
In Germany, hepatitis E cases are mostly due to the consumption of contaminated pork and game meat
While experts for a long time assumed that the hepatitis E cases in Germany are due to virus introductions from Africa and Asia, it is known today that the infection with the pathogen has mostly occurred in this country. "However, the transmission does not take place fecally-orally via contaminated drinking water, but via the consumption of contaminated pork and game meat," explains Faber.
In the European area, however, other genotypes of the virus are represented, which are usually transmitted from animal to human. In Africa and Asia, however, the infection usually takes place from person to person. According to the RKI, the majority of hepatitis E infections registered in Europe are therefore not imported. "Only strict hygiene really helps," emphasizes Faber. Meat should therefore only be eaten when it is completely cooked through. After contact with animals, it is advisable to wash your hands thoroughly. These measures significantly reduce the risk of infection.
The hepatitis E virus was first discovered in 1983 by a Russian scientist. Several years later, other researchers attributed a wave of epidemics in India, which caused 30,000 illnesses in 1955, to hepatitis E. According to Faber, this led to the conclusion that this is not a newly occurring disease.
The liver suffers unnoticed for a long time
"If clearer symptoms such as jaundice, severe pain in the upper abdomen, vomiting and great fatigue occur, 90 percent of the liver cells are already damaged," says Professor Ulrike Protzer, director of the Institute of Virology at the Technical University of Munich. "Early detection is therefore extremely important." (Ag)