Hepatitis A in a pediatric population from a northwestern Argentina

With the purpose of elaborating a plan of an epidemiological study to develop an Hepatitis A vigilance program in the most affected areas Tucuman, it was carried out evaluation about antibody, IgM HAV in 191 patients. These patients had been diagnosed with acute Hepatitis. The sample belonged to 15% of the new patients who attended the Gastroenterology Service at time. 75.9% of the studied patients had IgM HAV (+). There was a predominance of consultation within March to July, with a similar distribution according to sex. The range of age was from 3 month till 14 years old with an outstanding high consultation rate of the 75.4% considering the group within 3 years old. A percentage of 63% developed jaundice and 45% had had a close touch with persons infected with hepatitis. About this last item, the outstanding sort of contact was between school partners with a percentage of 41.27%. There were 20 children admitted at the Hospital. Four of them developed fulminant hepatic failure without having determined any etiologic agent. Only one of this group showed a spontaneous resolution. The rest of them could not survive to receive hepatic transplant. There were 95.12% who had current water in their houses and 68% of them had installed bathroom with sewer.

Conclusions: Evaluating the of Hepatitis in childhood with viral markers. Investigating hepatitis during fall and winter. Developing health promotion and prevention at schools as well as carrying out the most extreme hygienic steps to achieve this. Encouraging the obligatory announcement about the real cases so as to determine the geographic distribution and to carry out proper prevention campaigns in the most affected areas. Actualizing a seroprevalence study of hepatitis A in order to carry out a vaccination program based in believeable and actual dates so as to determinate costs and benefits items.