Hepatitis E through meat products: what is the risk?
Hepatitis E viruses in Mettbrötchen or liverwurst? that sounds dangerous. In fact, the causative agents of hepatitis often hide in meat products and infect more and more people each year. But even as a lover of carnal food, I do not have to give up steak, Schnitzel and Co completely? at least when I'm healthy. And with the right behavioral measures, I can significantly minimize my risk of infection.
It is largely unknown in Germany, although it is probably one of the most common hepatitis diseases in Germany: there is talk of hepatitis E. According to a study by the Robert Koch Institute, every sixth German already had contact with the pathogen? and in recent years, the number of infections has greatly increased.
The disease is "completely underestimated," warns the German liver aid. Unlike hepatitis A or hepatitis B, liver inflammation usually goes unnoticed, but under certain circumstances can become dangerous and even fatal. But how big is the danger that I get infected?
Transmission through raw meat and sausage products
In Germany, meat products of domestic boar and wild boar are the main sources of transmission? other game is suspected. The problem: The animals can be infected with the virus without showing symptoms. Nevertheless, their meat is not tested for hepatitis E before processing. The required technology is simply too expensive.
Viruses hidden in food can enter my body when ingested, migrate from the stomach into the intestine, invade the bloodstream and eventually end up in the liver. In particular, there is a high risk of eating raw meat and offal or raw sausage products such as salami, tea and mettwurst.
The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has recently detected hepatitis E components in more than 100 sausage varieties. These include, in particular, the varieties that are preserved only by seasoning and drying, but not heated. In the study, every fifth product tested contained traces of the pathogen.
Heating kills viruses
If I want to be absolutely sure, I should therefore abstain from eating raw sausage and meat products. However, I do not have to banish meat completely from the plate. It is sufficient to observe a few behavioral measures, because in principle the pathogenic viruses can only survive if the meat has not been sufficiently heated.
As a rule of thumb, I always cook steak, Schnitzel & Co completely or heat it for at least twenty minutes to temperatures above 70 ° C. This will make the virus inactive, making infection unlikely. In addition, I should thoroughly wash my hands after contact with raw meat and clean the kitchen utensils used with hot water and detergent.
Pregnant and immunocompromised people as a risk group
I have to be especially careful when I'm pregnant, suffering from chronic liver disease or immunodeficiency. So I belong to a sensitive risk group? and should consistently avoid raw meat and raw sausage.
Because while the body's own defense in most healthy people copes well with the pathogens and heals the disease even when symptoms such as fever or pain in the upper abdomen usually by itself, it can lead to serious complications in these cases. In extreme cases, hepatitis E infection in pregnant women leads to acute liver failure. Especially for women in the last trimester of pregnancy, the disease of the German liver aid can be fatal.
In liver patients or immunocompromised patients, the infection is often more severe and sometimes even chronic. The pathogen then spreads throughout the body and can get into the kidneys and also into the brain. In addition to the typical symptoms such as tiredness and the discoloration of urine, eyes or skin, it often comes to neurological complaints? for example, paralysis symptoms.
Danger even when traveling and blood transfusions
In addition to eating poorly cooked meat products, I can also expose myself to an increased risk when traveling to exotic areas: In tropical countries, the virus is widespread and transmits there, among other things by smear infections.
It is unclear what role blood stores play. Basically a transmission through contaminated blood products is possible? However, experts have yet to quantify exactly how high the risk of becoming infected with hepatitis E in Germany in this way.
