br A 56-year-old man from Hong Kong has contracted the rat-specific version of hepatitis E.br According to Gizmodo, the illness is something never observed before in a human patient.br Health officials are now scrambling to understand how this could have happened—and the possible implications.br The patient had recently received a liver transplant, and showed unusual liver dysfunction afterwards.br The human version of hepatitis E exists typically spreads through contaminated water.