Seroprevalence of hepatitis A virus infection in Central‐West of Tunisia

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.

Hepatitis A: Viral Structure, Classification, Life Cycle, Clinical Symptoms, Diagnosis Error, and Vaccination

“…Furthermore, contact with the feces of infected patients with HAV can result in the transmission of the virus, implying that the virus can be spread via oral-fecal transmission [ 8 , 11 ]. It is widespread, although it is more common in less-developed areas with inadequate sanitary and hygienic conditions [ 12 ]. Transfusion transmission of HAV is exceedingly rare due to the short persistence of viremia throughout acute HAV infection (approx.…”