Home|Journals|Articles by Year|Audio Abstracts
 

Original Research

RMJ. 2009; 34(1): 36-39


Are there Reasons for Universal Immunization for Hepatitis A Virus Infection?

Munir I Malik, MD¶, Muhammad Shahid¤, Salma Naheed, Ali Yawar Alam*, Ejaz A Khan.




Abstract

Objective: To determine the demographic, clinical, laboratory features and outcome of
Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) infection in children and young adults seen at Shifa
International Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Methods: We analyzed all cases of Hepatitis A infection at Shifa International Hospital
(SIH), Islamabad over a three-year period from October 2002 to December 2005. HAV
immunoglobulin M (IgM) was used as a marker of acute infection. Data regarding
demographic, laboratory investigations, morbidity and complications were collected.
Results: A total of 185 patients presented with acute HAV infection during the study
period. Mean age was 11.5±7.3 years (range 2-34) with 26% >16 years of age. There
1
were 66% males and 68% were students (including 2.5% physicians or medical students).
Sixty-five percent belonged to middle socioeconomic class, 20% to high and 6% to low
socioeconomic class. Eighty-one percent patients were from Rawalpindi/Islamabad area
and 73% cases occurred during July to December months. Clinical symptoms included
jaundice (80%), fever (45%), vomiting (62%), abdominal pain (43%), tender
hepatomegaly (21%) and diarrhea (9%). Mean duration of symptoms before diagnosis
was 6±4 days. There was history of contact in only 7% patients. The mean total bilirubin
was 5.9±7mg/dl and serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) 1805±1642 mg/dl.
Hospitalization was required in 30% patients and 57% of these were of age >12 years.
Mean duration of hospitalization was 2.9±2.6days. There was a statistically significant
difference between those 15 yrs in terms of mean ALT
(p

Key words: Hepatitis A virus, hepatitis, children.






Full-text options


Share this Article


Online Article Submission
• ejmanager.com




ejPort - eJManager.com
Refer & Earn
JournalList
About BiblioMed
License Information
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Contact Us

The articles in Bibliomed are open access articles licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.