[Hepatitis A--results of the analysis of 3,111 hospitalized patients].

The results of the analysis of 3.111 patients admitted to the hospital with hepatitis A (HA) were reported. The serodiagnosis of acute type A hepatitis was confirmed by presence of IgM antibody to hepatitis A virus (IgM anti-HAV) detected by solid-phase radioimmunoassay (RIA HAVAB-M, Abbott). The majority of patients were between 11-15 (24%) and 21-30 (25%) years of age and even 15% of a total number were older than 30 years. The number of males and females with HA was not significantly different and the minority of patients were admitted during the summer. A few of the admitted patients had a history of anicteric form of the disease (14%), while most (80%) were icteric. Only 6% of the affected patients had severe form of HA and no fulminant form of hepatitis among them occurred. The relapsing HA (RHA) was observed even in 308 (10%) of the patients, which did not alter the benign prognosis of HA. Forty three chronic HBV carriers were found to be infected with HAV and this did not cause more severe disease or influence adversely the course of chronic HBV infection. Nine pregnant women with HA in the third trimester of pregnancy had no severe form of the disease, but HA significantly increased the average incidence of prematurity (27%:10%). Although HA is neither severe illness nor one with important sequelae, it remains a frequent cause of morbidity. Therefore, a wide program of effective vaccination should be applied.