Hepatitis A in Developed Country, the Result Should Interpret Carefully

Dear Editor,

I read with interest the published article by Chung et al.¹ recently in your journal. Hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection continues to be a major health problem worldwide. Prevalence of HAV infection differs greatly in various parts of the world according to the geographic area, sanitary conditions and socioeconomic levels.² As the authors presented the prevalence rate for anti-HAV Ab increased significantly, studies in various communities have shown that HAV prevalence rises with age.³ It will emphasize the need anti HAV vaccine during childhood in Korea especially when the symptomatic HAV infections have remarkably reported in Korea been increased during recent years.⁴ But there are some points that can help the readers for better understanding the issue. The living place of study group was urban and it may under-estimate the real prevalence of anti-HAV Ab in general population in Korea. In changing the developing countries to developed countries, the improvement in health status in not uniform and there are heterogeneity in distribution in every country.⁵ These limitation prevent for final conclusion regarding all of country in Korea, however the result is very important for health policy makers for any decision in future.