title: [Seroprevalence of IgG anti-HAV in hospital employees below 40 years old].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hepatitis A is an acute infectious disease transmitted by fecal-oral route. As the incidence of hepatitis A has been increased in Gwangju and Chonnam province of Korea recently, the number of hepatitis A patients in hospital employees has also increased. Thus, we investigated the seroprevalence of IgG anti-HAV in hospital employees below 40 years old.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analysed the seroprevalence of anti-HAV IgG from 1,002 Chonnam national university hospital employees (men: 190, women: 812) who were below 40 years old. The age group was divided by 5 years; 21-25 years old 199 (19.9%), 26-30 years old 426 (42.5%), 31-35 years old 215 (21.5%), 36-40 years old 162 (16.1%).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall seropositive rate of IgG anti-HAV was 32.8% (329/1,002). The seropositive rate of men was 40.5% (77/190) and that of women was 31.0% (252/812). The seropositive rates of each age group were 1.5% (3/199) in 21-25 years old, 21.6% (92/426) in 26-30 years old, 48.4% (104/215) in 31-35 years old, and 80.2% (130/162) in 36-40 years old. The seropositivity rate of the high risk group (doctors, nurses, technicians) was 28.9% (234/809).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The seropositive rate of IgG anti-HAV was the lowest in early twenties of hospital employees and below 50% in early thirties. Therefore, hepatitis A vaccination may be warranted in the hospital employees below the early thirties.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School, Hak-dong, Dong-gu, Gwangju, Korea.
authors.forename: Du Young
authors.initials: du Y
authors.lastname: Noh
authors.forename: Yong Chan
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Won Jung
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Jun
authors.forename: Sung Kyun
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Kyoung Won
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Yun
authors.forename: Seon Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Wan Sik
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yeong Eun
authors.initials: YE
authors.lastname: Ju
authors.forename: Hyun Soo
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sung Kyu
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Jong Sun
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Rew
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000453:epidemiology*; D035922:Hepatitis A Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D017957:Hepatitis A Virus, Human / Q000276:immunology; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010564:Personnel, Hospital; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D035922:Hepatitis A Antibodies; D007074:Immunoglobulin G