Seroepidemiology of Hepatitis A Virus in Iranian Soldiers in 2006: Do They Need Vaccination?

Background and aims: since hepatitis a virus is a contagious viral infection, crowded military quarters are a fertile ground for the spread of this disease. this study sought to evaluate immunity against hepatitis a virus among iranian military draftees so as to determine whether or not universal vaccination for the armed forces is necessary. methods: this cross-sectional study randomly selected 800 army draftees in tehran, the capital city of iran in 2006. demographic data, namely age, occupation before call-up, education, and time of in-service, were collected. five ml of blood was taken from all the subjects; the blood samples were then centrifuged and their serum was examined by the elisa test with a broad test of abbott-hepatitis a virus ab meta-axsym system for total hepatitis a virus antibody. the data were subsequently analyzed with spss software, t-test, and mann-whitney's test. p