DOI: N/A
Prof. Dr. Madhusudan Saha
Hepatitis E (HEV) is a RNA virus of Hepaviridae family have four main genotypes 1 to 4. Of them HEV 1 and 2 are found in human. HEV 3 and 4 are found in animals including pigs, wild boars and deer and occasionally infect human (1). Globally HEV is the most common cause of acute hepatitis (2). WHO estimates that about 20 million HEV infection occurs per year globally and 3.4 million of them become symptomatic. In 2015, about 44000 patients died from HEV infection (3.4% of mortalilty from viral hepatitis) HEV infection is common in East and South Asia(3).Inactivation of HEV can be done by heating at ≥700c or by chlorination(4,5).