Abstract
BackgroundHepatitis A Virus (HAV) is one of the most common food and water borne infectious disease prevailing globally. The objective of the study was to determine sero-prevalence of HAV infection in a district of Sri Lanka.MethodsThis was a descriptive cross sectional study conducted on 1403 participants aged 1 year and above selected by multistage stratified (for age group and area of residence) cluster sampling from September 2015 to December, 2016. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data and Anti-IgG testing was done to determine sero-positivity. The overall, the age and sex specific sero-prevalence of HAV were calculated with 95% confidence intervals (CI).ResultsOf the 1403 participants 1132 were anti HAV IgG positive. Therefore the overall sero-prevalence of HAV infection was 80.7% (95%CI: 78.64–82.76). There were 283 (20.2%) individuals below the age group of 14 years and below and out of them, 204 had anti HAV IgG, therefore sero-prevalence was 72.1% for that age group. The age group 15 years and aboe comprised of 1120 (79.8%) participants and of them 928 had anti HAV IgG, making sero-prevalence 82.9%. The lowest sero-prevalence (66.9%, n = 232) was observed in the age group of 11–20 years followed by 21–30 age group. From age 31 years onwards, the sero-prevalence exceeded 90%, reaching 100% after 71 years. The urban population showed a sero-prevalence of 83% (n = 195) and 80.2% (n = 937) for the rural sector while females had a sero-prevalence of 82.2% (n = 766) and it was 77.7% (n = 366) for males. Thirty-four (3.0%) participants who had sero-positive results (n = 1132) claimed that they have had HAV in the past.ConclusionsOverall, four fifth of the population was immune to HAV infection in the district of Gampaha.
Highlights
Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) is one of the most common food and water borne infectious disease prevailing globally
Out of 1440 individuals who were initially selected for the study, only 1403 individuals participated
Seventy seven point 9 % (n = 1093) of the participants were Buddhist while 20.2% (n = 284) were Catholics
Summary
Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) is one of the most common food and water borne infectious disease prevailing globally. An estimated 1.5 million individuals worldwide are affected by hepatitis A virus (HAV). The HAV infection tends to be asymptomatic or only mildly symptomatic in young children, but the likelihood of experiencing symptomatic disease increases with age [1]. The HAV causes a systemic disease following transmission via the feco-oral route. Prognosis of HAV is usually excellent in young adults with mortality rates as low as 0.1%. For those aged 40 and above, mortality rate can be as high as 2.1% [3]. HAV can cause extra hepatic complications such as arthritis, vasculitis, myocarditis and renal failure [2]. In the case of high endemic countries, the economy is affected due to its impact on tourism where foreign visitors may need to be vaccinated before visiting
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