[Seroprevalence of IgG anti-HAV in hospital employees below 40 years old].
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.
Noh
Du Young
du Y
Department of Internal Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School, Hak-dong, Dong-gu, Gwangju, Korea.
Cho
Yong Chan
YC
Jun
Won Jung
WJ
Kim
Sung Kyun
SK
Yun
Kyoung Won
KW
Park
Seon Young
SY
Lee
Wan Sik
WS
Ju
Yeong Eun
YE
Kim
Hyun Soo
HS
Choi
Sung Kyu
SK
Rew
Jong Sun
JS
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
D035922:Hepatitis A Antibodies; D007074:Immunoglobulin G