Author

Diego Garrido

Published

June 27, 2025

Data

Original dataset

From RiskHEV.xlsx$3-Dades_gomets and temperaturesmostreig gomets.xlsx.

Details
Code
tb = data.frame(
  spot = c(
    rep(c("llum", "porta", "bossa identificativa (pinça)", "contenidor manec ferro", "contenidor interior"), 4),
    "llum", "porta", "cinta contenidor","int", "ext-contenidor interior"),
  date = as.Date(c(
    rep("04/24/2024", 5), 
    rep("05/08/2024", 5), 
    rep("05/23/2024", 5), 
    rep("06/05/2024", 5), 
    rep("06/24/2024", 3), 
    rep("07/15/2024", 2)
  ), format = "%m/%d/%Y"),
  temp = c(
    rep(8.89, 5), 
    rep(12.6, 5), 
    rep(13.8, 5), 
    rep(17.06, 5), 
    rep(19.21, 3), 
    rep(22.2, 2)
  ),
  hev = c(
    4.77E+02, 3.14E+02, NA, 2.00E+03, 3.51E+04,
    NA, 4.90E-02, NA, 1.70E+00, NA,
    2.97E-01, NA, NA, 1.74E+02, 2.31E+02,
    1.29E+01, 4.17E-01, 1.20E-01, 1.34E+00, 6.40E-01,
    NA, 3.51E-01, 4.30E+02,
    NA, NA
  ))
spot date temp hev
llum 2024-04-24 8.89 477.000
porta 2024-04-24 8.89 314.000
bossa identificativa (pinça) 2024-04-24 8.89 NA
contenidor manec ferro 2024-04-24 8.89 2000.000
contenidor interior 2024-04-24 8.89 35100.000
llum 2024-05-08 12.60 NA
porta 2024-05-08 12.60 0.049
bossa identificativa (pinça) 2024-05-08 12.60 NA
contenidor manec ferro 2024-05-08 12.60 1.700
contenidor interior 2024-05-08 12.60 NA
llum 2024-05-23 13.80 0.297
porta 2024-05-23 13.80 NA
bossa identificativa (pinça) 2024-05-23 13.80 NA
contenidor manec ferro 2024-05-23 13.80 174.000
contenidor interior 2024-05-23 13.80 231.000
llum 2024-06-05 17.06 12.900
porta 2024-06-05 17.06 0.417
bossa identificativa (pinça) 2024-06-05 17.06 0.120
contenidor manec ferro 2024-06-05 17.06 1.340
contenidor interior 2024-06-05 17.06 0.640
llum 2024-06-24 19.21 NA
porta 2024-06-24 19.21 0.351
cinta contenidor 2024-06-24 19.21 430.000
int 2024-07-15 22.20 NA
ext-contenidor interior 2024-07-15 22.20 NA

Data preprocessing

  • Remove spot: “bossa identificativa (pinça)”
  • Rename spots in english
  • Make groups: S1: “door” + “light”; S2: “container_lid” + “grip_handle”
  • Add helper columns: group, datenum (days from 2024-04-01), dategroup
Code
tb %<>% 
  filter(spot != "bossa identificativa (pinça)") %>%
  mutate(
    spot = case_when(
      spot == "porta" ~ "door",
      spot == "llum" ~ "light",
      spot %in% c("cinta contenidor", "ext-contenidor interior", "contenidor interior", "int") ~ "container_lid",
      spot == "contenidor manec ferro" ~ "grip_handle",
      TRUE ~ spot
    ),
    group= case_when(
      spot %in% c("door", "light") ~ "S1",
      spot %in% c("container_lid", "grip_handle") ~ "S2"
    ),
    datenum = as.numeric(date - as.Date("2024-04-24")),
    dategroup = ifelse(datenum <= 29, "april-may", "june-july")
  )
spot date temp hev group datenum dategroup
light 2024-04-24 8.89 477.000 S1 0 april-may
door 2024-04-24 8.89 314.000 S1 0 april-may
grip_handle 2024-04-24 8.89 2000.000 S2 0 april-may
container_lid 2024-04-24 8.89 35100.000 S2 0 april-may
light 2024-05-08 12.60 NA S1 14 april-may
door 2024-05-08 12.60 0.049 S1 14 april-may
grip_handle 2024-05-08 12.60 1.700 S2 14 april-may
container_lid 2024-05-08 12.60 NA S2 14 april-may
light 2024-05-23 13.80 0.297 S1 29 april-may
door 2024-05-23 13.80 NA S1 29 april-may
grip_handle 2024-05-23 13.80 174.000 S2 29 april-may
container_lid 2024-05-23 13.80 231.000 S2 29 april-may
light 2024-06-05 17.06 12.900 S1 42 june-july
door 2024-06-05 17.06 0.417 S1 42 june-july
grip_handle 2024-06-05 17.06 1.340 S2 42 june-july
container_lid 2024-06-05 17.06 0.640 S2 42 june-july
light 2024-06-24 19.21 NA S1 61 june-july
door 2024-06-24 19.21 0.351 S1 61 june-july
container_lid 2024-06-24 19.21 430.000 S2 61 june-july
container_lid 2024-07-15 22.20 NA S2 82 june-july
container_lid 2024-07-15 22.20 NA S2 82 june-july

Descriptive stats

Code
set.seed(123)
# ggplot(tb[!is.na(tb$hev), ], aes(y = log10(hev), x = spot)) +
#   geom_boxplot(col = "gray", outlier.size = 0) +
#   geom_jitter(width = 0.2) +
#   theme_classic(base_size = 18) +
#   theme(axis.text = element_text(angle = 45, hjust = 1))

tbs <- tb %>%
  filter(!is.na(hev)) %>%
  mutate(spot = forcats::fct_reorder(spot, hev, .fun = mean))

ggplot(tbs[!is.na(tbs$hev), ], aes(x = spot, y = log10(hev))) +
  stat_summary(fun = mean, geom = "point", size = 3) +
  stat_summary(
    fun.data = mean_cl_normal, 
    geom = "errorbar", 
    width = 0.2
  ) +
  geom_jitter(width = 0.2, alpha = 0.6) +
  theme_classic(base_size = 18) +
  theme(axis.text = element_text(angle = 45, hjust = 1))

Code
ggplot(tb[!is.na(tb$hev), ], aes(y = log10(hev), x = group)) +
  geom_boxplot(col = "gray", outlier.size = 0) +
  geom_jitter(width = 0.2) +
  theme_classic(base_size = 18) 

Code
ggplot(tb[!is.na(tb$hev), ], aes(y = log10(hev), x = dategroup)) +
  geom_boxplot(col = "gray", outlier.size = 0) +
  geom_jitter(width = 0.2) +
  theme_classic(base_size = 18)

Code
# fisher.test(with(tb, table(dategroup, is.na(hev))))

# ggplot(tb[!is.na(tb$hev), ], aes(x = datenum, y = log10(hev))) +
#   geom_point(alpha = 0.6) +                         
#   geom_smooth(method = "lm", se = TRUE,             
#               linewidth = 1, colour = "steelblue",
#               fill = "lightblue") +
#   theme_classic(base_size = 18) 
# 
# lm.fit <- lm(log10(hev)~datenum, data = tb)
# # plot(lm.fit)
# summary(lm.fit)

ggplot(tb[!is.na(tb$hev), ], aes(x = temp, y = log10(hev))) +
  geom_point(alpha = 0.6) +                         
  geom_smooth(method = "lm", se = TRUE,             
              linewidth = 1, colour = "steelblue",
              fill = "lightblue") +
  theme_classic(base_size = 18) 

Code
lm.fit <- lm(log10(hev)~datenum, data = tb)
# plot(lm.fit)
summary(lm.fit)

Call:
lm(formula = log10(hev) ~ datenum, data = tb)

Residuals:
    Min      1Q  Median      3Q     Max 
-3.0597 -0.9762  0.2168  1.0399  2.6638 

Coefficients:
            Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)   
(Intercept)  2.28014    0.67630   3.371  0.00501 **
datenum     -0.03788    0.01985  -1.908  0.07870 . 
---
Signif. codes:  0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 1.598 on 13 degrees of freedom
  (6 observations deleted due to missingness)
Multiple R-squared:  0.2188,    Adjusted R-squared:  0.1587 
F-statistic: 3.641 on 1 and 13 DF,  p-value: 0.0787
  • NAs substituted by 0:
Code
tb2 = tb
tb2$hev[is.na(tb2$hev)] = 1 # then log(1) = 0

# ggplot(tb2, aes(x = datenum, y = log10(hev))) +
#   geom_point(alpha = 0.6) +                         
#   geom_smooth(method = "lm", se = TRUE,
#               linewidth = 1, colour = "steelblue",
#               fill = "lightblue") +
#   theme_classic(base_size = 18)
# 
# lm.fit2 <- lm(log10(hev)~datenum, data = tb2)
# # plot(lm.fit)
# summary(lm.fit2)

ggplot(tb2, aes(x = temp, y = log10(hev))) +
  geom_point(alpha = 0.6) +                         
  geom_smooth(method = "lm", se = TRUE,
              linewidth = 1, colour = "steelblue",
              fill = "lightblue") +
  theme_classic(base_size = 18)

Code
lm.fit2 <- lm(log10(hev)~datenum, data = tb2)
# plot(lm.fit)
summary(lm.fit2)

Call:
lm(formula = log10(hev) ~ datenum, data = tb2)

Residuals:
    Min      1Q  Median      3Q     Max 
-2.7034 -1.0322 -0.1494  0.9143  2.7811 

Coefficients:
            Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)   
(Intercept)  1.76422    0.51816   3.405  0.00297 **
datenum     -0.02647    0.01255  -2.110  0.04836 * 
---
Signif. codes:  0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1

Residual standard error: 1.449 on 19 degrees of freedom
Multiple R-squared:  0.1898,    Adjusted R-squared:  0.1472 
F-statistic: 4.452 on 1 and 19 DF,  p-value: 0.04836

Exposure assesment

Surface model

\[d = C_{HEV} \times \frac{f_{conv}}{r_{eff}} \times f_{conv|surf} \times TE_{surf|hand} \times TE_{hand|mouth} \times f_{cont|mouth} \times n_{hours}\]

  • Concentration of HEV (surface, CG/cm\(^2\)), \(C_{HEV} \sim\) Lognormal\((\mu, \sigma)\). We consider left-censored data.
  • Group S1:
Code
tbs1 = subset(tb, group == "S1")
tbs1cens = data.frame(left = tbs1$hev, right = tbs1$hev)
tbs1cens$right[is.na(tbs1cens$right)] = min(tbs1cens$right, na.rm = T)
fit1 = fitdistcens(tbs1cens, distr = "lnorm")
fit1
Fitting of the distribution ' lnorm ' on censored data by maximum likelihood 
Parameters:
          estimate
meanlog -0.9618246
sdlog    4.5238145

Q1. Detection limit is 4.56 GC/cm^2. How is it possible that there are values below?

  • Group S2:
Code
tbs2 = subset(tb, group == "S2")
tbs2cens = data.frame(left = tbs2$hev, right = tbs2$hev)
tbs2cens$right[is.na(tbs2cens$right)] = min(tbs2cens$right, na.rm = T)
fit2 = fitdistcens(tbs2cens, distr = "lnorm")
fit2
Fitting of the distribution ' lnorm ' on censored data by maximum likelihood 
Parameters:
        estimate
meanlog 2.233536
sdlog   4.874869

Q2. Maybe we should do \(U(0, max)\) for each spot.

  • Conversion factor (TCID50/GC), \(f_{conv} = \frac{1}{700}\) (McBride et al. 2013).
  • Recovery efficiency (%), \(r_{eff} = 7.3\) (Itarte et al. 2024).
  • Frequency of hand-to-surface contacts per work day (“jornada laboral”) (events/day), \(f_{conv|surf} \sim\) Uniform \((a, b)\) (from RiskHEV.xlsx$3-Dades_gomets):
spot a b
light 6 8
door 2 20
container_lid 0 4
grip_handle 0 4

To integrate different spots within S1 we may use a mixture between both distributions (also for HEV concentrations).

  • Viral transfer efficiency from surface to bare hands (%), \(TE_{surf|hand} \sim\) Normal \((\mu = 37, \sigma = 16)\) (Lopez et al. 2013).

  • Viral transfer efficiency from hands to mouth (%), \(TE_{hand|mouth} = 34\) (Rusin et al. 2002).

  • Frequency of hand-to-mouth contacts (events/hour), \(f_{cont|mouth}\). The distribution can be learnt from the data of Wilson et al. (2021), available at https://doi.org/10.5518/798 (data_face_contact.csv).

Code
data_face_contact <- read.csv(url("https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/680/1/data_face_contact.csv"))
f_contmouth = subset(data_face_contact, 
                     eatonly == "Non-eating" & 
                     age == "adult" & 
                     contactarea == "mouth")$frequency
pmf_contmouth <- table(f_contmouth) / length(f_contmouth)
# sum(pmf_contmouth)

# Non-parametric sampling
set.seed(123)
sampl <- sample(as.numeric(names(pmf_contmouth)), size = 1e6, replace = TRUE, prob = pmf_contmouth)

Distribution with \(\mu\simeq\) 2.92 and \(\sigma \simeq\) 2.54.

  • We thought of not including \(n_{hours}\) as we consider daily doses. However, \(f_{cont|mouth}\) is given in events/hour. Q3. So we need to define \(n_{hours}\). We can use \(U(4,6)\) as in Itarte et al. (2024) .

Dose-response model (Beta-Poisson)

Exact model

\[ P_{inf}(d|\alpha,\beta) = 1 - {}_1F_1\left( \alpha, \alpha + \beta, -d \right) \]

Approximation

\[ P_{inf}(d|\alpha,\beta) = 1 - \left(1 + \frac{d}{\beta} \right)^{-\alpha} \] This approximation is valid when \(\alpha << \beta\) and \(\beta >> 1\) (Haas et al. 2014).

Reparametrization based on \(N_{50}\)

\[ P_{inf}(d |\alpha, N_{50}) = 1 - \left ( 1 + (2^{1/\alpha}-1)\cdot \frac{d}{N_{50}}\right ) ^{-\alpha}\] where \(\beta = \frac{N_{50}}{2^{1/\alpha}-1}\). A good description of the Beta-Poisson model is provided in Teunis et al. (2000).

Parameter estimation

Parameters derived for HEV from chimpanzee data via MLE in Ruchusatsawat et al. (2022):

  • \(\alpha = 216.89\)
  • \(N_{50} = 3.03 \cdot 10^7\) (intravenous inoculation)

95% CI for both parameters are shown in Figs. 2-3, but data (to the best of my knowledge) is not provided.

Wilkins et al. (2025) refers to Müller et al. (2017) and AFSSA (2009) and suggests to use \(N_{50} = 10^{5.5}\) instead (based on consumption of pork-derived products). It seems more realistic to use this value in our scenario.

Q4. In Itarte et al. (2024) we have an equation (eq. 4) to compute \(P_{ill}\) (probability of illness) from \(P_{inf}\) (probability of infection), but for HEV we do not have such equation (we lack the parameter estimates). In Ruchusatsawat et al. (2022), they use a similar strategy (eqs. 6 and 11). We may be able to use this, but I am not sure whether it would be equivalent. Discuss in person.

QMRA test (1)

Considering uniform distributions for \(C_{HEV}\).

Code
set.seed(123)
nsim = 1e4
res = list()
spots = c("door", "light", "grip_handle", "container_lid")
for (where in spots){
  C_HEV = runif(n = nsim, ifelse(is.na(min(subset(tb, spot==where)$hev)),
                                 0, min(subset(tb, spot==where)$hev)), 
                          max(subset(tb, spot==where)$hev, na.rm = T))
  f_conv = 1/700
  r_eff = 7.3
  range_vals <- switch(where,
                       door = 6:8,
                       light = 2:20,
                       grip_handle = 0:4,
                       container_lid = 0:4
  )
  f_conv_surf = sample(range_vals, replace = T, size = nsim)
  TE_surf_hand = rnorm(n = nsim, mean = 37, sd = 6)
  TE_hand_mouth = 34
  f_cont_mouth = sample(as.numeric(names(pmf_contmouth)), 
                        replace = T, size = nsim, prob = pmf_contmouth)
  n_hours = sample(4:6, size = nsim, replace = T)
  
  d = C_HEV*f_conv/r_eff*f_conv_surf*TE_surf_hand*TE_hand_mouth*f_cont_mouth*n_hours
  
  alpha = 216.89
  N50 = 10^5.5
  P_inf = 1 - (1 + (2^(1/alpha) - 1)*d/N50)^(-alpha)
  res[[where]] = P_inf
}

# For plotting
df = data.frame(
  spot = rep(spots, times = lengths(res)),
  probs = unlist(res, use.names = FALSE)
)
medians <- tapply(df$probs, df$spot, median)
df$spot <- factor(df$spot, levels = names(sort(medians)))

pl = ggplot(df, aes(x = spot, y = probs)) +
  geom_boxplot() +
  theme_minimal() +
  labs(y = expression(P[inf]))

plz = ggplot(df, aes(x = spot, y = probs)) +
  geom_boxplot() +
  theme_minimal() +
  coord_cartesian(ylim = c(0,0.05)) + 
  labs(y = expression(P[inf]))

plot_grid(pl, plz)

References

AFSSA. 2009. “Opinion of the French Food Safety Agency regarding hepatitis E virus: Methods for detection, risks to the consumer and risks to the environment.” https://www.anses.fr/en/system/files/MIC2009sa0146EN.pdf.
Haas, C. et al. 2014. Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment: Second Edition. Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment: Second Edition. Vol. 9781118145296. Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118910030.
Itarte, M. et al. 2024. “Assessing environmental exposure to viruses in wastewater treatment plant and swine farm scenarios with next-generation sequencing and occupational risk approaches.” International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health 259 (June): 114360. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.IJHEH.2024.114360.
Lopez, G. U. et al. 2013. “Transfer Efficiency of Bacteria and Viruses from Porous and Nonporous Fomites to Fingers under Different Relative Humidity Conditions.” Applied and Environmental Microbiology 79 (18): 5728–34. https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01030-13.
McBride, G. B. et al. 2013. “Discharge-based QMRA for estimation of public health risks from exposure to stormwater-borne pathogens in recreational waters in the United States.” Water Research 47 (14): 5282–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.WATRES.2013.06.001.
Müller, A. et al. 2017. “Assessment of the risk of foodborne transmission and burden of hepatitis E in Switzerland.” International Journal of Food Microbiology 242 (February): 107–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.IJFOODMICRO.2016.11.018.
Ruchusatsawat, K. et al. 2022. “Quantitative Risk Assessments of Hepatitis A Virus and Hepatitis E Virus from Raw Oyster Consumption.” Risk Analysis 42 (5): 953–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/RISA.13832.
Rusin, P. et al. 2002. “Comparative surface‐to‐hand and fingertip‐to‐mouth transfer efficiency of gram‐positive bacteria, gram‐negative bacteria, and phage.” Journal of Applied Microbiology 93 (4): 585–92. https://doi.org/10.1046/J.1365-2672.2002.01734.X.
Teunis, P. et al. 2000. “The Beta Poisson Dose-Response Model Is Not a Single-Hit Model.” Risk Analysis 20 (4): 513–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/0272-4332.204048.
Wilkins, N. et al. 2025. “A farm-to-consumption quantitative microbiological risk assessment for hepatitis E in pigs.” Risk Analysis, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/RISA.70035.
Wilson, A. M. et al. 2021. “Frequency of hand-to-head, -mouth, -eyes, and -nose contacts for adults and children during eating and non-eating macro-activities.” Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology 2020 31:1 31 (1): 34–44. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-020-0249-8.