Hepatitis E prevalence in French Polynesian blood donors

The HEV seroprevalence in mainland France is elevated (22.4%). In contrast, anti-HEV seroprevalence appears to be lower in Oceania. However, none is available for French Polynesia. We assessed the anti-HEV IgG and IgM prevalence on samples from 300 consecutive blood donors living on Tahiti and Moorea islands. Epidemiological information was collected using a specific questionnaire. Overall IgM seroprevalence was 0.6% and overall IgG seroprevalence was 7.7%. The presence of anti-HEV IgG was associated with increasing age (p = 0.01), eating chicken offal (p = 0.01) and cooked rabbit (p = 0.02). Conversely, eating fafaru—traditional Polynesian condiment—was associated with a lower rate of anti-HEV IgG (p<0.01).). All donors who surfed or practiced va’a (traditional outrigger canoë) were HEV seronegative. The Polynesian lifestyle and the particular food consumption patterns—especially the very well cooked pork—may be the key to understand the low HEV seroprevalence in French Polynesia.