CASE COMMUNICATIONS
IMAJ | volume 26
Journal 8, September 2024
pages: 520-521
A Rare and Severe Case of Hepatitis E
1 Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai South Nassau, Oceanside, New York, USA
2 Department of Critical Care Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai South Nassau, Oceanside, New York, USA
3 Department of Medicine, Jacobi Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, USA
Summary
Hepatitis E Virus (HEV), a single-stranded RNA virus, is the leading cause of viral-induced acute liver failure globally. It is estimated to infect 20 million people annually, resulting in 3.3 million symptomatic cases and 44,000 deaths, worldwide [1]. Transmission is fecal-oral through contaminated food and water, zoonotic spread, or blood transfusions, and usually results in a self-limiting disease. While prevalent in resource-limited countries, cases are sporadic in the developed world [1]. Established risk factors for severe HEV infection include pregnancy, immunocompromised state, and underlying liver disease, while reports of malignancy as a predisposing factor are not well documented [1]. Here we present a case of a patient who, without established risk factors, developed a severe HEV infection leading to multiorgan failure and death.