Erratum to: A systematic review of the epidemiology of hepatitis E virus in Africa

Erratum

In this letter, we wish to correct errors in the previously published article [1]. Although the errors do not change the main results and conclusions described in the abstract of the original article, we believe providing the correct information is important. The major correction is about the genotype distribution of HEV in Africa. In the original article, we indicated that genotype 3 is rare and less commonly found than genotype 2 while genotype 1 is the most prevalent. The correct information is, however, that genotypes 2 and 3 were identified at a similar frequency while genotype 1 was the most prevalent. This error arose because the genotypes of HEV identified in seven Nigerian adults [89] were mistaken to be 2, when their actual genotype was 3. In what follows, we revised the relevant section named “Genotype prevalence” on page 5 of the original article and the relevant table and figure (i.e., Table 5 and Fig. 2).

Table 1 Seroprevalence of anti-HEV antibodies in Africa. Seroprevalence varies by country and by subpopulation and studies were done under different conditions (e.g., sample size, demographics, and different diagnostic methods). Age of the sample is provided as mean (range or ± standard deviation, if available)

Table 2 Sporadic cases caused by hepatitis E virus in Africa. Proportion of sporadic hepatitis cases attributable to HEV varies by country and by subpopulation and studies were done under different conditions (e.g., sample size, demographics, and different diagnostic methods). Age of the sample is provided as mean (range or ± standard deviation, if available)

Table 5 Genotype distribution from African HEVs

Fig. 2

Map of Africa. Colored areas represent countries where HEV is endemic at least for some subpopulations or sporadic HEV cases or outbreaks have been detected. Circles indicate HEV outbreaks with centers and areas indicating the location and outbreak size, respectively. Different colors represent different genotypes. White areas indicate countries where no data is available

Genotype prevalence

Data on the genotypes of circulating HEV’s are available for 9 countries (16 studies). Table 5 presents a summary sorted by genotype and also provides characteristics of the sample, genomic regions tested. Genotype 1 seems to be most prevalent as it was found in Central African Republic [34], Sudan [35], Chad [28, 35], Egypt [46, 62, 124], and Namibia [88] followed by genotype 2 and 3, of which both were observed at a similar frequency. Genotype 2 was found in Central African Republic [34], Chad [35], and Namibia [87]. Genotype 3 was observed in one Egyptian child [48], one acute hepatitis patient in Mayotte (originally from France) [82], seven Nigerian adults with acute hepatitis E [89], and slaughter house workers in Madagascar [81]. Genotype prevalence can differ in neighboring countries as was demonstrated by one study in Sudan and Chad where genotype 1 was more common in Sudan and genotype 2 was more common in Chad [35]. Figure 2 shows a map of Africa where countries in which HEV infections were observed are differently colored according to HEV genotype.

We corrected additional minor errors in Tables 1 and 2 although these corrections do not cause any changes in the main text. We have made three revisions to Table 1 of the original article:

• (a) The seroprevalence of a Zambian population were 42% and 16%, which should be 40.6% and 16.0%, respectively [115]

• (b) The sample size, (n = 402), in the description of the study conducted in Ghana (the first row of Ghana) was removed to avoid duplication

• (c) The study of HEV in Sierra Leone was mistaken to be omitted in the original article with no reference included. It is now included in the revised Table 1 with the full reference [139]

The order of table cells was rearranged for Egyptian data by descending seroprevalence to make it consistent across countries. For Table 2, some of decimal points appear as middle dots in the original article, which were revised to be the same as other decimal points (i.e., periods) in the revised Table 2.

139. Hodges M, Sanders E, Aitken C. Seroprevalence of hepatitis markers; HAV, HBV, HCV and HEV amongst primary school children in Freetown, Sierra Leone. West Afr J Med. 1998; 17(1): 36-7.