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[Seroepidemiologic study of the prevalence of anti-HAV antibodies in children in Rome]
S Catania1, C Ajassa, S Tzantzoglou
1Dipartimento di Malattie Infettive e Tropicali dell Università degli Studi La Sapienza, Roma.
Insights
Hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection was studied in 278 children, with 9.7% testing positive for anti-HAV antibodies. Higher infection rates were observed in older children and males, suggesting a potential shift of risk to adulthood.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Infectious Diseases
- Epidemiology
Abstract:
The authors evaluated the incidence of infection by hepatitis A virus (HAV) in a paediatric population through a seroepidemiological investigation in a group of 278 children (0-12 years old), apparently healthy. The determination of anti-HAV antibodies was carried out by ELISA-test. Of the 287 examined sera, 27 cases turned out HAV positive antibodies (9.7%), with the following distribution, according to the groups of age: 0-3 months: 2 of 6 children were positive (mother's antibodies); 3 months-2 years: 6 of 112 (5.35%); 2-6 years: 10 of 93 (10.75%); 6-12 years: 11 of 67 (16.41%). With regard to distribution of anti-HAV antibodies by sex, 23 (15.03%) males of 153 resulted positive, whereas 4 (3.2%) females of 125 resulted positive. The decline of HAV infection in the paediatric age involves a possible shift of the risk to the adult age. It's advisable that the vaccination against hepatitis A in first period should be reserved for the subjects at risk and later both for unweaned and children in order to eradicate the infection.