title: [Seroepidemiologic study of hepatitis A virus among children of Maracaibo, Venezuela].
abstract: With the purpose of determining the incidence of Hepatitis A virus infection, we determined the presence of antibodies against this virus (anti-VHA) with the ELISA technique in 209 children from Maracaibo city of different socioeconomic levels, ages ranging from 6 months to 12 years. At the same time, we investigated the incidence of a recent infection through IgM antibodies for Hepatitis A (anti-VHA IgM) using the same ELISA technique. We found a global positive incidence of 46.4% for all ages. Individual ages studied showed 31% seropositivity in children less than one year old and a higher seropositivity in children between 9 and 11 years old (50-76.4%). There were noticeable differences in seropositivity in relation to social economic condition observing a higher percentage in children of low social economic level. A recent infection was demonstrated after the second year of life (60%) and a variable percentage through all pediatric ages studied. There was no recent infection detected in children under one year of age which suggests that antibodies anti-VHA obtained transplacentally can last at least for the first year of life as it does with other virus.
authors.affiliation: Cátedra de Microbiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad del Zulia, Venezuela.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amesty-Valbuena
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: González-Pirela
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rivero
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D006507:Hepatovirus / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014687:Venezuela / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies
vernacular_title: Estudio seroepidemiológico para virus de hepatitis A en niños de Maracaibo, Venezuela.