| Additional Information | Hepatitis E is an infectious hepatitis that is usually spread through contaminated food or water. Infection may be associated with travel to countries with poor hygiene/sewage conditions but increasingly, cases of hepatitis E are being identified in the UK usually due to consumption of undercooked contaminated meat. Hepatitis E can affect non-human animals and has been found in pigs in the UK. There have been reports of transmission by transfusion and transplant. Infection in healthy individuals is often symptom free but in people with underlying problems in their immune systems it can be serious and occasionally fatal. The Blood Services currently test for this infection. |