Seroepidemiology of hepatitis A virus in Japan

A seroepidemiologic study to detect class-specific antibody against hepatitis A virus (HAV) was made with 831 randomly collected sera (415 in 1973 and 416 in 1984) from healthy Japanese. Competitive-inhibition, IgG, IgA, and IgM anti-HAV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) were used. Both collections showed a low prevalence of IgG anti-HAV in young age groups and it increased rapidly at middle age and plateued at greater than or equal to 94% prevalence in the older age groups. However, two age groups spanning ages 25-34 demonstrated statistically lower IgG anti-HAV age prevalences in 1984 vs 1973 (P less than 0.001), with an average 10-year prevalence shift. These data suggest that there has been no significant level of HAV infection to alter antibody prevalences in Japan from 1973 to 1984. The markedly decreased incidence of HAV infection in Japan has created a presently large and growing population of HAV susceptibles.