|
AGE SPECIFIC SEROPREVALENCE OF HEPATITIS A VIRUS
INFECTION IN MALAYSIA – A CHANGING PATTERN
Khairullah N *, Merican I +, Padmanathan A *, Yusup R *, Ismail R #
* Malaysian Liver Foundation, + Ministry of Health, # Aventis
Pasteur (M) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ABSTRACT
The change in prevalence of Hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection from
hyperendemicity to lower endemicity resulting from improvements in
socio-economic status and sanitation has public health implications.
The objective of our study is to assess the exposure to HAV in our
population in the year 2000 and to determine the epidemiological
trend that would contribute to the implementation of preventive
measures and control of this disease.
We conducted a randomised, cross-sectional survey of 2,200 sera
obtained from non-icteric subjects aged 1-70 years for the presence
of hepatitis A antibodies. Sera obtained from subjects from
Peninsular and East Malaysia were categorised into five regions
according to geographical locations. Total antibodies against
hepatitis A virus were detected by ELISA using a commercially
available kit, ETI-AB-HAVK-3 (DiaSorin, Italy) following the
manufacturing’s instructions. All statistical tests were two-sided
and were interpreted at a 5% level of significance; 95% confidence
intervals for prevalence were based on Fleiss quadratic computation.
Keywords:
Hepatitis A, Seroprevalence, Endemicity, Epidemiological Trend
Correspondence to: Raman ISMAIL, MD, MPH, Aventis Pasteur SA,
74, Jalan Universiti, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
|
|
