Reports containing technical information, data, research protocols, proceedings, training material and the results of other activities carried out by the ISS. Most reports are published in Italian, some are in English.
All reports have an English abstract.
Volumes issued before 2020 are available at https://www.iss.it/it/rapporti-istisan
Rapporto ISTISAN 21/16 - Hepatitis E virus infection in blood donors in Italy: an epidemiological survey at regional and national level. E. Spada, S. Taffon, M. Simeoni, A. Martina, I. Pati, U. Villano, D. Adriani, A. D’Angiò, E. Tritarelli, S. Bellino, S. Boros, R. Urciuoli, F. Masiello, G. Marano, R. Bruni, P. Pezzotti, A.R. Ciccaglione, S. Pupella, V. De Angelis, G. Pisani
Istituto Superiore di Sanità
Hepatitis E virus infection in blood donors in Italy: an epidemiological survey at regional and national level.
Enea Spada, Stefania Taffon, Matteo Simeoni, Antonio Martina, Ilaria Pati, Umbertina Villano, Daniela Adriani, Agnese D’Angiò, Elena Tritarelli, Stefania Bellino, Stefano Boros, Roberta Urciuoli, Francesca Masiello, Giuseppe Marano, Roberto Bruni, Patrizio Pezzotti, Anna Rita Ciccaglione, Simonetta Pupella, Vincenzo De Angelis, Giulio Pisani
2021, 49 p. Rapporti ISTISAN 21/16 (in Italian)
In developed countries, hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is essentially a food-borne zoonosis, although it can be transmitted by transfusion. During 2017-2019 we determined the prevalence of HEV infection markers in 7172 Italian blood donors; 6,235 of them filled out a questionnaire on risk factors for infection. The prevalence of anti-HEV IgG, IgM and HEV RNA was 8.3%, 0.5%, and 0%, respectively. The anti-HEV IgG prevalence showed a wide regional variability (1.3-30.0%) and hyperendemic rates (> 40%) were found in some provinces of Abruzzo and Sardinia. Advanced age, foreign nationality, hunting, consumption of certain foods of swine origin (salami, pork liver sausages, artisanal sausages) were all independent predictors of HEV infection. The prevalence in Italian blood donors was therefore moderate/low compared to other countries. In high prevalence areas, individual and environmental preventive measures would be appropriate
Key words: Blood donors; HEV; Italy; Prevalence; Risk factors; Zoonosis
Published 08/10/2021
