Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 pandemic calm down the prevalence of acute hepatitis A in the latter half of 2009: Korean population study

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: There was a spiking incidence of acute hepatitis A (AHA) in 2009 summer, but it went down drastically after an outbreak of influenza A (H1N1). We assessed the relationship between 2009 H1N1 pandemic and AHA prevalence from August to December 2009. METHODS: We compared AHA cases nationwide and in our hospital for the period from the latter half of 2008 to the end of 2010. H1N1 cases in our hospital from August 2009 to December 2009 were included in the study and the correlation between 2009 H1N1 pandemic and AHA prevalence was assessed. RESULTS: The national surveillance system reported 2,233, 7,895, 15,231 and 7,660 AHA cases from 2007 to 2010, respectively. A similar trend was noted in our hospital in the same periods. Although the national total incidence was increased in 2009, it showed steep decreasing trend line in the final 21 weeks of 2009 (weeks 32-52), as compared with 2008 and 2010. The mean weekly incidence percentage (AHA cases in a week/total in a year) in weeks 32-52 of 2009 was 1.17±0.55%, significantly lower than that in 2008 and 2010 (1.61±0.43% and 1.56±0.51%; p<0.001). Furthermore, we found a significant negative correlation between 2009 H1N1 pandemic and AHA in our hospital for weeks 32-52 of 2009 (r=-0.597; p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The widespread occurrence of 2009 H1N1 pandemic highlighted the benefits of health care and good hygiene, such as effective hand washing and wearing of masks, which may have also interrupted hepatitis A virus transmission.