A cross-sectional study was conducted in order to identify hepatitis A virus (HAV) serological markers in 418 individuals (mean age, 16.4 years; range, 1 month-80 respectively, in 89.5% (374/418) and 10.5% (44/418) IA and IB in 93.3% (28/30) Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is a hepatotropic virus and a member of the Hepatovirus genus within the Picornaviridae family (Minor 1991). The virus is responsible for the majority of the acute hepatitis cases in Brazil (Gaspar et al. 1996), and infection symptoms are age-related. Among HAV-infected individuals, children under 6 years old are typically asymptomatic, whereas older children and adults develop jaundice or present dark urine. The prevalence of HAV infection is closely correlated with the level of environmental sanitation and with prevailing socioeconomic and hygiene conditions. The incidence of HAV is higher in developing countries, although the pattern of HAV endemicity in several of these countries has dropped from high to intermediary due to improvements in sanitation conditions in recent decades (Tapia-Conyer et al. 1999, Tanaka 2000. As a consequence, increasing proportions of those populations have had no contact with HAV and are therefore more susceptible to infection. In Brazil, hepatitis A is still considered an endemic disease, although data collected in the state of Rio de Janeiro indicate that a shift in the hepatitis A epidemiological pattern has taken place (Santos et al. 2002, Villar et al. 2002.
of the individuals tested. Acute HAV infection in children was independently correlated with crawling (p < 0.05). In 56.8% (25/44) of the IgM anti-HAV-positive individuals and in 33.3% (5/15) of the IgM anti-HAV-negative individuals presenting clinical symptoms, HAV RNA was detected. Phylogenetic analysis revealed co-circulation of subgenotypesThe virus is usually transmitted via the fecal-oral route, either through person-to-person contact or through in- (Gehlbach et al. 1973, Williams et al. 1975. Results of some studies have suggested that HAV is transmitted mainly by children with either asymptomatic or subclinical infection. Lack of proper hygiene facilitates HAV transmission from such children to their relatives and friends, as well as to child care center staff members (Castelli et al. 1999, Poovorawan et al. 2005.The HAV strains have been classified into six genotypes (I to VI), based on nucleotide sequences of the VP1/2A junction region (Robertson et al. 1992. Prevalent human strains fall into genotypes I or III, each of which are divided into subtypes A and B. In Brazil, co-circulation of subgenotypes IA and IB have been found in Rio de Janeiro , Villar et al. 2004. Circulation of subgenotype IA has also been detected in other regions of Brazil (de Paula et al. 2004).Since it was first reported that HAV was able to propagate in cell culture (Provost et al. 1979), there have been many attempts to develop an HAV vaccine. In the United States and some other countries, safe and effective formalin-inactivated HAV vaccines against hepatitis A have ...