Running Like Water — The Omnipresence of Hepatitis E

Abstract

Hepatitis E virus (HEV), originally identified as the culprit in massive waterborne epidemics of acute hepatitis in Asia, is now commanding attention in regions of Sudan and Iraq. And once again, contaminated water is implicated. Between May and August of 2004, almost 4000 suspected cases of hepatitis E were reported by health clinics in the Greater Darfur region of Sudan, where civil conflict has forced the internal displacement of approximately 15 percent of the population. Sudanese refugees who fled to camps in neighboring Chad have fared no better, and more than 1000 suspected cases of hepatitis E were identified between . . .