Hepatitis E - Prevention

Prevention

Improving sanitation is the most important measure, which consists of proper treatment and disposal of human waste, higher standards for public water supplies, improved personal hygiene procedures and sanitary food preparation. Thus, prevention strategies of this disease are similar to those of many others that plague developing nations, and they require large-scale international financing of water supply and water treatment projects. A vaccine based on recombinant viral proteins has been developed and recently tested in a high-risk population (military personnel of a developing country). The vaccine appeared to be effective and safe, but development stopped for economical reasons, since hepatitis E is rare in developed countries.

A different vaccine (HEV 239, sold as Hecolin by its developer Xiamen Innovax Biotech) was approved for the disease in 2012 by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, following a phase 3 trial on two groups of 50,000 people each from Jiangsu Province where none of the vaccinated became infected during a 12 month period, compared to 15 in the group given placebo treatment. The first vaccine batches came out of Innovax' factory in late October 2012, and will be sold to Chinese distributors.