Kang Jin-Han, Lee Kyung-Yil, Kim Chang-Hwi, Sim Derrick
Department of Pediatrics, Our Lady of Mercy Hospital, Catholic University of Korea, Incheon, South Korea.
Asian Pac J Allergy Immunol. 2004 Dec;22(4):237-42.
Hepatitis A is a vaccine-preventable disease with 1.5 million people infected world-wide annually. Improvement in the socio-economic status and general public health measures of Asian countries over the last 20 years has led to a shift in the seroprevalence of hepatitis A in many of these countries. In Korea, like in many other developed countries, this lowered endemicity has caused an upward shift in the average age of infection, resulting in larger numbers of individuals at risk of clinically significant hepatitis A infection. Sporadic outbreaks increase the public health burden of the disease. Inactivated hepatitis A vaccines are an effective prevention measure and have been shown to be safe, efficacious and well-tolerated in Korean children. Given this changing epidemiology of the disease and the associated increase in morbidity, vaccination of young children who are not immune, as well as other high risk groups, should be recommended.
甲型肝炎是一种可用疫苗预防的疾病，全球每年有150万人感染。在过去20年里，亚洲国家社会经济地位和公共卫生措施的改善导致其中许多国家甲型肝炎血清流行率发生了变化。在韩国，与许多其他发达国家一样，这种地方流行率的降低导致感染的平均年龄上升，使得更多人有感染具有临床意义的甲型肝炎的风险。散发性疫情增加了该疾病的公共卫生负担。甲型肝炎灭活疫苗是一种有效的预防措施，已证明在韩国儿童中安全、有效且耐受性良好。鉴于该疾病流行病学的这种变化以及发病率的相应增加，应建议对未免疫的幼儿以及其他高危人群进行疫苗接种。
