Abstract
IntroductionHepatitis A infection is prevalent in developing countries where sanitation is still a public health issue. In Nigeria, there is no epidemiological data on children for this infection. A community based study was carried out to establish the seroprevalence and predictors of this infection in children.MethodsA community based cross sectional study was carried out in Akpabuyo local Government Area of Cross River State in southern Nigeria. Multi-staged sampling technique was used to recruit 406 children aged 1-18 years. Blood samples were analysed for anti-HAV total antibody (IgM and IgG) using a commercial Enzyme-Linked Immunoassay Assay(ELISA). A multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors that independently predicted the occurrence of anti-HAV total antibody. p value of < 0.05 was considered significant.ResultsTwo hundred and twenty four subjects tested positive for anti-HAV total antibody giving a prevalence rate of 55.2%. The median age for those positive was 9 years and for those without evidence of HAV infection was 4 years. One hundred and one (45.1%) males and 123 (54.9%) females were positive. The study population was mainly of the low social class with 94.1%. After multivariate analysis, predictors of HAV infection were age and social class.ConclusionHAV infection was prevalent in the study population. Educational campaign is imperative and vaccine provision is advocated to further curb the spread of this infection.
Highlights
Hepatitis absorbance of the sample (As) infection is prevalent in developing countries where sanitation is still a public health issue
Four hundred and six children aged 1 - 18 years participated in this study
The age group 1 – 4 years was the highest represented with a total number of 150 (37.0%)
Summary
Hepatitis A infection is prevalent in developing countries where sanitation is still a public health issue. Hepatitis A is a non-enveloped ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus that is transmitted faeco-orally [1,2,3] It has a worldwide distribution with the highest prevalence in developing countries, where environmental and socio-economic conditions favour nearly universal exposure in early childhood [1,2,3]. Improvements in public health sanitation have led to a decline in the incidence of hepatitis A infections in the developed countries and to a shift of the time of first exposure to older age groups [4-6 ]. Recent changes in the epidemiology of HAV infection and the availability of effective vaccines have renewed interest in this infection [4,5]
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