Seroprevalence of Hepatitis-A Virus Among Child and Adult Age Groups Admitted To a Training and Research Hospital

Abstract

Objective: Owing to its transmission via fecal-oral route, prevalence of hepatitis A virus (HAV) is naturally in line with economic development of a region. The present study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of hepatitis A among pediatric and adult age groups admitted to a training and research hospital. Materials and Methods: Presence of anti-HAV IgM and IgG antibodies was investigated in serum samples, which were transferred to our laboratory between June 2012 and July 2013 with the pre-diagnosis of HAV infection, and positive samples were retrospectively analyzed according to the age groups. Anti-HAV IgM and IgG antibodies were analyzed by the chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (CMIA) and electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA) using Cobas (R) 4000 e411 (Roche, Germany) and Architect i2000SR (Abbott Diagnostics, Germany) analyzers. Results: Results of 6697 patients were analyzed in terms of the presence of anti-HAV antibodies. Anti-HAV IgM and anti-HAV IgG positivity rates were 2.9% and 89.9%, respectively, for all age groups. It was observed that anti-HAV IgM positivity was increased after the age of 1 year, reached to the maximum level at the age of 6-7 years, and regressed to below 1% after the age of 14 years. Whilst anti-HAV IgG positivity was determined to be 34% at the age of 0-1 years, it regressed to 27% at the next range of age and then increased with age. Conclusion: The present study found high anti-HAV IgM positivity particularly in pediatric age group. Necessary public health measures should be precisely carried out due to the reasons like crowded family life and higher number of school-age children.