For health professionals: Hepatitis E
Get detailed information on hepatitis E for health professionals.
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What health professionals need to know about hepatitis E
Hepatitis E virus is classified as a virus belonging to the genus Orthohepevirus in the family Hepeviridae.
Diagnosis
Monitor for symptoms of disease. Confirm using serological or nucleic acid tests, and by exclusion of hepatitis A, B and C viruses.
Serological tests involve enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) for the detection of antibodies to hepatitis E virus (IgM, IgA, and IgG).
Nucleic acid tests involve reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays for the detection of hepatitis E virus RNA in samples of:
- serum
- feces
Treatment
No specific treatment is currently available. Those infected should recover on their own with bed rest.
For more information
- Hepatitis: Awareness resources
- Hepatitis E virus: Pathogen safety data sheet - Infectious substances
- Canada Communicable Disease Report
- World Health Organization