Epidemiology of severe hepatitis A in Indigenous Australian children.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the epidemiology of hepatitis A in Indigenous Australian children.


METHODS
Analysis and mapping of national notification and hospitalisation data.


RESULTS
Indigenous Australian children are at far higher risk of clinical hepatitis A than their non-Indigenous counterparts, particularly in the age group 0-4 years. Rates of hospitalisation (15.5 vs. 0.3 per 100,000) and notification (24.4 vs. 1.8 per 100,000) were higher in Indigenous children aged 0-4 years compared with other children in the same age group. In the age group 5-14 years, the rates were 4.4 per 100,000 (Indigenous) versus 0.6 per 100,000 (non-Indigenous) hospitalisations. This excess morbidity falls sharply with age. Rates were the highest in the Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia and North Queensland.


CONCLUSIONS
Indigenous children are at risk of hepatitis A, particularly early in life. Mapping shows that rates were the highest in jurisdictions with the largest Indigenous populations. This study presents baseline data against which to measure the success of new hepatitis A vaccination programme for Indigenous Australian children which commenced in 2005.
MacIntyre
C Raina
CR
National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (NCIRS), The Children's Hospital at Westmead and the University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. rainam@chw.edu.au
Burgess
Margaret
M
Isaacs
David
D
McIntyre
Peter B
PB
Menzies
Robert
R
Hull
Brynley
B
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018563:Disease Notification; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant