Hepatitis E after travel to India - two case reports

We report two cases of acute hepatitis E. The first case is a 21-year-old m ale who had returned two weeks earlier from a three-month journey to India. He was admitted into our clinic with nausea, stomach pain? vomiting, scler al icterus and stool discoloration. After excluding other possible causes o f the symptoms, we made the diagnosis by testing for antibodies by EW. No t reatment was initiated and despite a temporary increase of the icterus, the patient returned to a normal state of health. The second case is a native of India who has lived in Germany for ten years . He returned from a two-week visit to India with fever nausea and malaise. In follow-up, he was anicteric? and a temporary thrombocytopenia was detec ted. He was treated symptomatically, and recovered within a few days. The p atient had a secondary diagnosis of sinusitis, which was resolved with anti biotics. In spite of a large spectrum of diagnostic possibilities, a part of the liv er diseases cannot be etiologically clarified. Following travel to India an d other endemic regions, hepatitis E should be considered in the differenti al diagnosis. The course of hepatitis E is usually benign? further diagnost ic studies are rarely needed, and the treatment is usually symptomatic.