At least four people died from the hepatitis E virus (HEV), believed to have spread in parts of northern and northeastern Japan during the 1990s, a Tokyo-based hospital researcher said Sunday.
This is the first confirmation of HEV-related deaths in Japan, prompting a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry investigation into the spread of the virus. HEV is usually found in developing countries with high rainfall, poor sanitation and is commonly spread through consumption of water or food contaminated with feces of the virus carriers.
A survey led by Shunji Mishiro, director of research at Toshiba Hospital, confirmed that seven people in Hokkaido, Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture were infected with HEV in addition to the four who died.
Mishiro analyzed the HEV in the seven, who had not traveled outside Japan, and detected three strains of the virus, suggesting the virus entered the country via three routes.
Of those who died, one woman was diagnosed as suffering from acute hepatitis last year. She received a partial liver transplant from a living donor, but her condition later deteriorated.
Another research group detected HEV in blood samples of three elderly men in the Tohoku and northern Kanto regions who died of unspecified acute hepatitis in the 1990s.