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HONG KONG – In Hong Kong, a strain of hepatitis E was discovered that was only found in rats, the researchers said Friday.
While rats transmitted several other diseases to humans, it was the first human discovery of the variation in hepatitis E, a liver disease in rats. Researchers from the University of Hong Kong identified the infection last September in a 56-year-old man who had received a liver transplant in May 2017.
He was cured of the disease in March, after which they checked their findings before announcing the case.
Dr. Yuen Kwok-yung, chairman of the infectious diseases section of the microbiology department of the University of Hong Kong, called the case "appeal."
And Dr. Siddharth Sridhar, clinical assistant professor in the university's microbiology department, said Hong Kong needed to work harder to fight rodents, as the city did during the SARS outbreak of 2003 and 2004.
In densely populated areas like Hong Kong, "infections that pass from animals to humans must be taken very seriously," said Dr. Sridhar. "For these types of rare infections, unusual infections, even a case is enough for public health authorities and researchers to be very attentive to the implications of the disease. We are all we need.
Although the patient received a liver transplant, the researchers excluded the infection from his blood and organ donors, all tested negative for the disease. Rather, researchers found rat droppings, undiscovered piles of garbage and open passages found near the patient's home as major risk factors for rodent-borne diseases.
The researchers said that routine testing for hepatitis E would not have allowed the strain to be identified, which is very different from the one that usually infects humans. They detected the source of the patient's infection in this case after finding similarities with infected rats in Vietnam.
When they tested rodent samples that health authorities had collected in his neighborhood in recent years, they found hepatitis E in at least one rat.
It is not uncommon for diseases to be transmitted between animals and humans – the Ebola virus most likely originates from an infected animal. But scientists have struggled to measure the threat of rats and how they spread diseases.
Infections transmitted by rats are relatively rare. There were only four in Hong Kong this year and nine last year.
The World Health Organization estimates that human variation in hepatitis E infects 20 million people each year, most commonly in East and South Asia. Approximately 44,000 people died in 2015.
Most cases of hepatitis E in men, which usually cause mild symptoms, including nausea and diarrhea, resolve within six weeks, but may be more severe in patients with weakened immune systems. The disease is more common in areas where sanitation and water supply are substandard.
The variation of hepatitis E in rats was discovered in 2010 in Germany, researchers said. It has been found in rats around the world, including in the United States.
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