Seroprevalence of hepatitis A virus infection in Central-West of Tunisia.
J Med Virol
; 93(6): 3666-3671, 2021 06.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32986240
ABSTRACT
Hepatitis A infections still represent a major global health concern. During the past years, a transition pattern of the hepatitis A epidemiology was noted in many parts of the world. In Tunisia, there is not a recent survey on age-specific hepatitis A virus seroprevalence. This study aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of hepatitis A virus infection in Central-West Tunisia, representative of regions with lowest socioeconomic level in the country, before vaccine implementation. Sera obtained from the blood samples of subjects were screened for the detection of hepatitis A virus. The seroprevalence was evaluated by detection of total antibodies to hepatitis A virus using commercially available immunoassay kits. A total of 1379 subjects, aged 5-75 years (mean age 29.0 ± 17.3 years) were studied. The global anti-hepatitis A virus seroplevalence was 84.7% (95% confidence interval [82.6-86.5]). A higher hepatitis A virus seroprevalence was showed in subjects aged 10-14 years compared to those aged less than 10 years (50.0% vs. 31.0%). In subjects aged 20-29 years, a rapid increase in the hepatitis A virus prevalence was noted; it reached 97.0%. The seroprevalence of anti-hepatitis A virus differed by zone of residence (81.1% in rural area vs. 72.4% in urban area, p = .005) and increased significantly with lower level of education (p = .019). There was no statistical significant seroprevalence difference between male and female 84.2% versus 85.2%, respectively. Our study confirm the transition pattern of the hepatitis A virus endemicity in Tunisia from high to intermediate and provide an evaluation of the hepatitis A virus epidemiological situation before vaccine implementation.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Virus de la Hepatitis A
/
Hepatitis A
Tipo de estudio:
Etiology_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
País/Región como asunto:
Africa
Idioma:
En
Año:
2021
Tipo del documento:
Article