Korean J Gastroenterol.  2010 Mar;55(3):183-188. 10.4166/kjg.2010.55.3.183.

Seroprevalence of IgG Anti-HAV in Hospital Employees below 40 Years Old

• Noh DY
• Cho YC
• Jun WJ
• Kim SK
• Yun KW
• Park SY
• Lee WS
• Ju YE
• Kim HS
• Choi SK
• Rew JS

• KMID: 1775900
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4166/kjg.2010.55.3.183

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS
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 empolyees (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 empolyees below the early thirties.

Keyword

Hepatitis A; Seroprevalance; IgG anti-HAV; Hospital employee

MeSH Terms

Adult
Female
Hepatitis A/*epidemiology
Hepatitis A Antibodies/*blood
Hepatitis A Virus, Human/immunology
Hospitals
Humans
Immunoglobulin G/*blood
Male
Occupational Diseases/*epidemiology
*Personnel, Hospital
Seroepidemiologic Studies
Young Adult

Figure

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  Fig. 1. IgG anti-HAV seropositive rates in the enrolled subjects according to the gender.

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  Fig. 2. Seroprevalence rate according to the age and gender distribution.

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  Fig. 3. Seroprevalence rate according to the occupations.∗ Others: pharmacists, officers in general business, janitor, dietitian, etc.

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  Fig. 4. IgG anti-HAV seropositive rates of potential high risk group (doctors, nurses and technicians) according to their ages.

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