Hepatitis E virus

Electron microscopy (EM) analyses show spherical particles of possible icosahedral symmetry, with indefinite surface substructure, resembling the caliciviruses.Hepatitis E is common in many parts of the world. HEV virion is a nonenveloped, spherical,ss, positive-stranded Hepevirus RNA virus. HEV is a small and structurally simple RNA animal virus. is composed entirely of viral protein and RNA.

Organism Details:
Shape and Size
Virions isometric (icosahedral), not enveloped 27-34 nm in diameter.
Genome Information
Hepatitis E virus is a positive-strand viruses ( GI:-9626440) has a 7176 bp single stranded linear RNA.The genome structure consists of 3 genes and 3 proteins.The GC content of Hepatitis E virus is about 57.9%.
Food Source
. Foodborne infection could occur from consumption of uncooked/undercooked products from infected animal: pork or deer meat,shellfish.
Pathological Factor
Hepatitis E virus causes acute sporadic and epidemic viral hepatitis. Symptomatic HEV infection is most common in young adults aged 15-40 years and is uncommon in children. Although HEV infection is frequent in children, it is mostly asymptomatic and anicteric. As with hepatitis A, virus is detected in bile, liver and faeces before the onset of liver function abnormalities.Severe or fulminant cases may show submassive and massive hepatic necrosis.
Disease
Hepatitis E is a serious liver disease caused by the Hepatitis E virus (HEV) that usually results in an acute infection. It does not lead to a chronic infection. Hepatitis E is a mild to moderate disease in severity (mortality rate of 0.4-4.0%) except in pregnancy, where the mortality rate is progressively higher in each succeeding trimester and may reach 20%. Fulminant hepatitis cases in pregnancy may reach a mortality rate of 20% in the 3rd trimester. Premature deliveries with high infant mortality of up to 33% are also observed.10, 29, 40, 41, 48 The reason for this high mortality is not clear yet. Some of the complications of pregnancy are toxemia with hypertension, proteinuria, edema, and kidney lesions. By directly or indirectly affecting the kidneys, HEV might precipitate eclampsia and lead to increased mortality in pregnant women.6 Common cholestatic jaundice can persist for several week. chronic liver disease or in pregnant women where fulminant hepatitis has been reported while high incidence of fetal wastage has been also reported.
Affected Body Organs
Classification
Group Group-IV-((+)ssRNA)
Order Unassigned
Family Hepeviridae
Genus Hepevirus
Species Hepatitis-E virus