Hepatitis E is inflammation of the liver caused by infection with the hepatitis E virus (HEV); it is a type of viral hepatitis.
Hepatitis E has mainly a fecal-oral transmission that is similar to hepatitis A, but the viruses are unrelated.
The earliest known epidemic of hepatitis E happened in 1955 in New Delhi, but the virus was not discovered until 1983, by Russian scientists investigating an outbreak in Afghanistan.
One of five known human hepatitis viruses: hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E.