These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Seroepidemiology of hepatitis E virus infection among preschool children in Taiwan.
    Author: Lin DB, Lin JB, Chen SC, Yang CC, Chen WK, Chen CJ.
    Journal: J Med Virol; 2004 Nov; 74(3):414-8. PubMed ID: 15368521.
    Abstract:
    In order to study the seroprevalence of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection among preschool children in Taiwan, a community-based survey was carried out in 54 kindergartens in 10 urban areas, 10 rural areas, and 2 aboriginal areas randomly selected through stratified sampling. Serum specimens of 2,538 preschool children were screened for HEV antibodies (anti-HEV) by a commercially available enzyme immunoassay. The odd ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated through multiple logistic regression analysis. A total of 86 children were anti-HEV seropositive, giving a prevalence of 3.4%. The prevalence of anti-HEV was 3.9% (19 of 484) among aboriginal children, a significantly increased seroprevalence compared with that among children who lived in urban areas (OR = 1.68; 95% CI = 1.56-2.95; P < 0.05). Females had a higher anti-HEV seroprevalence than the males (OR = 1.55; 95% CI = 1.14-2.54; P < 0.05). Rates of anti-HEV antibody increased with age in aboriginal areas (chi(2) for trend = 5.59, P = 0.02), but decreased with age in non-aboriginal areas. The poor water supply system, poor sewage disposal, exposure to wild animals, and other environmental conditions in the aboriginal areas might have played a role in their infection with HEV in Taiwan.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]