Successful Use of Advertisement Pictures to Assist Recall in a Food-Borne Hepatitis A Outbreak in The Netherlands, 2017

Hepatitis A Virus and Hepatitis E Virus as Food- and Waterborne Pathogens-Transmission Routes and Methods for Detection in Food

Foodborne viruses are an important threat to food safety and public health. Globally, there are approximately 5 million cases of acute viral hepatitis due to hepatitis A virus (HAV) and hepatitis E virus (HEV) every year. HAV is responsible for numerous food-related viral outbreaks worldwide, while HEV is an emerging pathogen with a global health burden. The reported HEV cases in Europe have increased tenfold in the last 20 years due to its zoonotic transmission through the consumption of infected meat or meat products. HEV is considered the most common cause of acute viral hepatitis worldwide currently. This review focuses on the latest findings on the foodborne transmission routes of HAV and HEV and the methods for their detection in different food matrices.

Tomatoes: An Extensive Review of the Associated Health Impacts of Tomatoes and Factors That Can Affect Their Cultivation

Simple Summary

The research outlined in this review paper discusses potential health benefits associated with a diet enriched with tomatoes and tomato products. This includes details of previous studies investigating the anticancer properties of tomatoes, protection against cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes, maintenance of a healthy gut microbiome, and improved skin health, fertility, immune response, and exercise recovery. The specific parts of a tomato fruit that contribute these health benefits are also outlined. The potential disadvantages to a tomato-rich diet are detailed, especially the consumption of supplements that contain compounds found in tomatoes, such as lycopene. This review also discusses how the cultivation of tomato plants can affect the nutritional value of the fruit harvested. Different environmental growing conditions such as light intensity, growing media, and temperature are explained in terms of the impact they have on the quality of fruit, its nutrient content, and hence the potential health benefits acquired from eating the fruit.

Abstract

This review outlines the health benefits associated with the regular consumption of tomatoes and tomato products. The first section provides a detailed account of the horticultural techniques that can impact the quality of the fruit and its nutritional properties, including water availability, light intensity, temperature, and growing media. The next section provides information on the components of tomato that are likely to contribute to its health effects. The review then details some of the health benefits associated with tomato consumption, including anticancer properties, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases and skin health. This review also discusses the impact tomatoes can have on the gut microbiome and associated health benefits, including reducing the risk of inflammatory bowel diseases. Other health benefits of eating tomatoes are also discussed in relation to effects on diabetes, the immune response, exercise recovery, and fertility. Finally, this review also addresses the negative effects that can occur as a result of overconsumption of tomato products and lycopene supplements.

Foodborne transmission of hepatitis A and hepatitis E viruses: A literature review

Foodborne viruses have been recognized as a growing concern to the food industry and a serious public health problem. Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is responsible for the majority of viral outbreaks of food origin worldwide, while hepatitis E virus (HEV) has also been gaining prominence as a foodborne viral agent in the last years, due to its zoonotic transmission through the consumption of uncooked or undercooked infected meat or derivatives. However, there is a lack of scientific reports that gather all the updated information about HAV and HEV as foodborne viruses. A search of all scientific articles about HAV and HEV in food until March 2020 was carried out, using the keywords "HAV", "HEV", "foodborne", "outbreak" and "detection in food". Foodborne outbreaks due to HAV have been reported since 1956, mainly in the USA, and in Europe in recent years, where the number of outbreaks has been increasing throughout time, and nowadays it has become the continent with the highest foodborne HAV outbreak report. Investigation and detection of HAV in food is more recent, and the first detections were performed in the 1990s decade, most of them carried out on seafood, first, and frozen food, later. On the other hand, HEV has been mainly looked for and detected in food derived from reservoir animals, such as meat, sausages and pate of pigs and wild boars. For this virus, only isolated cases and small outbreaks of foodborne transmission have been recorded, most of them in industrialized countries, due to HEV genotype 3 or 4. Virus detection in food matrices requires special processing of the food matrix, followed by RNA detection by molecular techniques. For HAV, a real-time PCR has been agreed as the standard method for virus detection in food; in the case of HEV, a consensus assay for its detection in food has not been reached yet. Our investigation shows that there is still little data about HAV and HEV prevalence and frequency of contamination in food, prevalent viral strains, and sources of contamination, mainly in developing countries, where there is no research and legislation in this regard. Studies on these issues are needed to get a better understanding of foodborne viruses, their maintenance and their potential to cause diseases.

Natural Host-Environmental Media-Human: A New Potential Pathway of COVID-19 Outbreak

Identifying the first infected case (patient zero) is key in tracing the origin of a virus; however, doing so is extremely challenging. Patient zero for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is likely to be permanently unknown. Here, we propose a new viral transmission route by focusing on the environmental media containing viruses of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or RaTG3-related bat-borne coronavirus (Bat-CoV), which we term the "environmental quasi-host." We reason that the environmental quasi-host is likely to be a key node in helping recognize the origin of SARS-CoV-2; thus, SARS-CoV-2 might be transmitted along the route of natural host-environmental media-human. Reflecting upon viral outbreaks in the history of humanity, we realize that many epidemic events are caused by direct contact between humans and environmental media containing infectious viruses. Indeed, contacts between humans and environmental quasi-hosts are greatly increasing as the space of human activity incrementally overlaps with animals' living spaces, due to the rapid development and population growth of human society. Moreover, viruses can survive for a long time in environmental media. Therefore, we propose a new potential mechanism to trace the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Application of an Optimized Direct Lysis Method for Viral RNA Extraction Linking Contaminated Dates to Infection With Hepatitis A Virus

Consumption of dates has not been considered a common risk of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection. In January 2018, an outbreak of hepatitis was identified with cases resident in all regions of Denmark. All the detected strains belonged to HAV genotype 3A. Epidemiological investigations through patients’ interviews, case-control and trace-back studies pointed toward different batches of dates from a single producer as the vehicle of infection. Boxes of dates from suspected batches were collected from homes of patients and healthy families and analyzed using a recently reported optimized direct lysis method, consisting of simultaneous viral RNA elution and extraction from dates followed by purification of the nucleic acids. Extracts were analyzed for HAV and norovirus (NoV) RNA using RT-qPCR, while detected HAV were genotyped by Sanger sequencing. Among 20 nucleic acid extracts representing eight batches of dates, RNA of HAV (9.3 × 10² genome copies/g) and NoV genogroup (G)II (trace amounts) were detected in one batch, while NoV GII RNA (trace amounts) was detected in another. Average extraction efficiency of spiked process control murine norovirus was 20 ± 13% and the inhibitions of RT-qPCR detection of NoV GI, NoV GII, and HAV were 31 ± 34, 9 ± 9, and 3 ± 7%, respectively. The HAV genome detected in the dates matched by sequence 100% to the HAV genotype 3A detected in stool samples from cases implicated in the outbreak. This confirmed, to our knowledge, for the first time a sequence link between HAV infection and consumption of contaminated dates, suggesting dates to be an important vehicle of HAV transmission.

Hepatitis A vaccination

Hepatitis A is an important public health issue worldwide. Hepatitis A vaccine (HepA) was first licensed in 1992. Both inactivated HepA (HepA-I) and live attenuated HepA (HepA-L) are highly immunogenic and well tolerated, and immune protection postvaccination can persist for at least 20 y. HepA is effective for both preexposure and postexposure prophylaxis, especially among children and young adults. The strategy of HepA vaccination varies in different countries and mainly includes vaccination among high-risk populations, regional childhood vaccination and universal childhood vaccination. The incidence of hepatitis A has decreased greatly in many countries in the last 30 y, but hepatitis A outbreaks frequently occur among high-risk populations and those who have not been covered by universal child vaccination programs in recent years. Disease surveillance and serosurveys are suggested to clarify the shift in the epidemiology of hepatitis A. The long-term persistence of immune protection after one dose of HepA should be further studied, as well as the cost-effective evaluation of different strategies of HepA vaccination. Based on this evidence, the recommendation on HepA vaccination should be put forward scientifically and updated in a timely and well-implemented manner.