Study of seroprevalence of hepatitis a and e viruses in patients of acute viral hepatitis in a tertiary care centre in sub himalayan region

Acute viral hepatitis is a systemic infection affecting the liver predominantly. It is common health problem in areas where safe drinking water is not universally available. In recent times we have witnessed frequent outbreaks as a result of that.: To estimate sero-positivity of Hepatitis A and E viruses in indoor patients of hepatitis, presenting with jaundice using ELISA.: Blood samples and clinical information were collected from cases of jaundice and referred to VRDL lab for analysis over a period of 1 year.: Samples were tested for anti –HAV immunoglobulin M (IgM) and anti –HEV immunoglobulin M (IgM).Data was entered into a pre-structured data entry form, on Microsoft Excel sheet.The viral etiology was confirmed in 236 (41.1%) cases while in 337 (58.8%) cases no hepatitis virus could be detected, hepatitis E virus were found to be maximum in 45.76% cases, followed by HAV (39.83% cases)and while in 14.41% cases no hepatitis virus could be detected.: Routine basic microbiological analysis of drinking water should be carried out by assaying the presence of Escherichia coli by the multiple tube fermentation technique.