Rabia Shamas, Rasool Bakhsh Shaikh, Amtul Hafiz.
Prevalence of Hepatitis E virus (HEV) & outcome of Hepatitis E virus in pregnant women.
Professional Med J Jan ;8(4):505-13.

This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of HEV and severity of Hepatitis E in pregnant women and to see the out come of hepatitis E virus in HEV reactive and nonreactive jaundiced patients. The study included 65 patients in different trimester of pregnancy 15-control subject of same age group and different socio-economic classes are included. The study spread over nine months i.e. from August 1995 to April 1996. The incidence of HEV was 57% in pregnant women with jaundice. Mean age was 25 years. The incidence of viral hepatitis in the first, second and third trimester was 3%, 31%, 66% respectively. Twelve out of 37 HEV reactive patients delivered pre-term, four patients had history of abortion, only six patients died due to fulminant hepatitis, 15 had either intra uterine death (IUD) or neonatal deaths (NWD). Only six had term delivery. Remaining nine continued their pregnancy till the end of the study. The majority of the patients (85%) were from lower socio-economic group with low haemoglobin level. It was concluded that mortality rate of HEV in pregnant women was very high i.e 50%, such alarming result suggests that measures for eradication of HEV should be taken at national level.

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