Chronic hepatitis E: Advancing research and patient care

The hepatitis E virus (HEV) was initially thought to exclusively cause acute hepatitis. However, the first diagnosis of chronic hepatitis E in transplant recipients in 2008 profoundly changed our understanding of this pathogen. We have now begun to understand that specific HEV genotypes can cause chronic infection in certain immunocompromised populations. Over the past decade, dedicated clinical and experimental research has substantiated knowledge on the epidemiology, transmission routes, patho-physiological mechanisms, diagnosis, clinical features and treatment of chronic HEV infection. Never-theless, many gaps and major challenges remain, particularly regarding the translation of knowledge into disease prevention and improvement of clinical outcomes. This article aims to highlight the latest de-velopments in the understanding and management of chronic hepatitis E. More importantly, we attempt to identify major knowledge gaps and discuss strategies for further advancing both research and pa-tient care.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of European Association for the Study of the Liver. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

The understanding and management of chronic hepatitis E have made some progress, but there are still many unanswered questions and challenges that require further advancement in research and patient care.