From Rats to Humans: What We Know About Rat Hepatitis E Virus

Rats are remarkably successful in living alongside humans, and wherever they go, they bring their own collection of viruses. One of them is rat hepatitis E virus (rHEV, Rocahepevirus ratti), which was first discovered in 2010. Since then, the virus has been detected in rodents around the world and, in recent years, has also been identified as the cause of a small but growing number of human infections. However, many important questions remain unanswered: How often does the virus spill over to humans? Who is most at risk? And how is it transmitted?

In our review that can be accessed here, we summarize the current knowledge on the global distribution of rHEV in humans, animals, and the environment, and highlight the key research gaps that need to be addressed. We also discuss why a One Health approach, bringing together human, animal, and environmental health, is essential for understanding and monitoring this emerging zoonotic virus. The review is the result of a collaboration between researchers from our Institute, the University of Hong Kong, the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) in Vom, Nigeria, and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Jos in Nigeria. By combining expertise from three continents, we hope to stimulate further research and improve surveillance of this fascinating, but still poorly understood, virus.

Image: Black Rat (Rattus rattus), picture taken by Davidvraju, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).