Hepatitis A in shellfish related to outbreak. Región del Bio-Bio, Chile 2014-2016.

Hepatitis A is caused by RNA viruses of the genus Hepatovirus of the family Picornaviridae that can remain in the environment and cause disease at low doses if it is ingested in food or water. Chile is an intermediate endemic... [ view full abstract ]

Hepatitis A is caused by RNA viruses of the genus Hepatovirus of the family Picornaviridae that can remain in the environment and cause disease at low doses if it is ingested in food or water. Chile is an intermediate endemic country except the Bio Bio Region that has been transformed into a high endemic area since 2014 with a rate from 50 to more than 1000 accumulated cases in a million & a half population area. Health management has consisted in strengthening hygiene alerts and vaccination in the population under 18 months. 

In order to evaluate the presence of HAV in submarine emissaries and natural mollusc banks as a source of infection, 123 samples of bivalve molluscs and ten samples of water associated to waste water pipet line were analyzed.

The preparation of the viral extract was performed according to BAM-US-FDA recommendations and detection to ISO-15216-1 methodology.

The presence of Hepatitis A virus was detected in 35 samples of seafood and a sample of waste water. The water concentration was 800 copies of the genome per liter (c g / L). Five shellfish samples had concentrations greater than 1000 copies of the genome per gram of hepatopancreas. The percentages of virus recovery from the control process were between 1 and 77%.

 These results correspond to the first environmental isolation associated with outbreaks in the country. The outbreak study showed only the presence of genotype IA with similarity greater than 99.7% between samples of seafood, clinical isolates and reference strains