Occupational exposure to hepatitis E virus (HEV) in swine workers.

The aim of this work was to study the prevalence of hepatitis E virus (HEV) and the risk factors for the acquisition of the virus in a population in contact with swine and unexposed to swine. A total of 198 individuals, 97 unexposed (49%) and 101 exposed (51%) to swine, were tested for the presence of HEV infection. The prevalence of anti-HEV IgG in the exposed group was 18.8% versus 4.1% in the unexposed to swine group. People exposed to swine were observed to be 5.4 times (P = 0.03) at risk of having anti-HEV IgG. Ten (52.6%) of the IgG-positive individuals showed two concomitant risk factors: untreated water consumption and exposure to swine. These data support that HEV infection should be treated as a vocational illness in swine workers. Therefore, systematic application of hygiene measures in this collective is highly recommended to avoid the exposition to this virus.