hav immunity in iranian medical students

Background: hepatitis a, a fecal-oral transmitted disease, which has been considered endemic in developing countries, seems to change its pattern in developing countries because of their improved socioeconomic status. objectives: in the present study, we aimed to determine the need of vaccination in 270 students at aja university of medical sciences. materials and methods: the serum level of anti-hav antibody was checked in 270 students of aja university of medical students, and effect of different factors, including age, gender, pre-university entrance exam region, familial education, familial income, clean water availability, and previous history of jaundice were tested. results: of total 270 students, 30 were female. their age ranged between 18 and 30 years old with the mean age of 20.58 years and just 34% of students had positive level of anti-hav antibody. age and sex had no role in positive serum level of anti-hav antibody. according to analyzed data, lack of clean water availability, pre-university entrance exam region, lower family education, and poor health status estimation increased statistically the risk of hav infection. conclusions: because 66% of students were anti-hav antibody negative and they will work as health care workers in future, our study suggest vaccinating all students accepted at aja university of medical sciences.