Seroprevalence of hepatitis A antibodies among children in a Saudi community

ObjectiveTo determine the current seroprevalence of antibodies against hepatitis A virus in selected group of children aged 1-6 years in Northern borders region, Saudi Arabia, and to identify risk factors for infection.MethodsA cross-sectional sero-epidemiological study of 950 children who attended 10 randomly selected primary health care centers (5 urban and 5 rural) was done. Parents of all children were subjected to a questionnaire including sociodemographic and housing environmental data. The determination of anti-HAV antibodies was carried out by ELISA-test.ResultsThe prevalence of HAV-IgG was 33.8% overall, 35.5% among males and 32.0% among females with no statistically significant difference. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that increasing age, rural residence, non Saudi nationality, and non availability of safe municipal water source were the most important independent predictors for HAV seropositivity in the studied children.ConclusionsThere is a clear decrease in hepatitis A prevalence in the studied children particularly in urban areas and indicates that a transition may be underway to intermediate endemicity and possible shift of the risk to the adult age with increased morbidity. So, we recommend including Hepatitis A in the schedule of routine childhood vaccinations.