title: Epidemiology and prevention of hepatitis A in travelers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hepatitis A is the second most common vaccine-preventable travel-associated infectious disease and hepatitis A virus (HAV) is the most common cause of viral hepatitis. The incidence of infection is closely related to sanitary conditions and the level of economic development.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated HAV incidence, infection-related risk factors, and HAV vaccination rates in international travelers through retrospective analyses using major databases, such as CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the current literature describing epidemiological data for HAV infection in recent years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found that the incidence of HAV infection in developed countries is very low. As international travel increases, the incidence of hepatitis A among travelers remains high and likely leads to regional outbreaks. Travelers should visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website or Infectious Disease Prevention Center of their countries to learn about the incidence of infectious diseases associated with their destination before going abroad to determine if they should be vaccinated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Chuan-Yong
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Guo
mesh_terms: D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D014943:Global Health; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D022362:Hepatitis A Vaccines / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017957:Hepatitis A Virus, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D014195:Travel; D014611:Vaccination / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D022362:Hepatitis A Vaccines