Hepatitis A antibody in an isolated Amerindian tribe fifty years after exposure.

Antibody to hepatitis A in an Amerindian tribe was found in everyone over 50 years old but in no one younger. We suggest that the tribe had become infected with hepatitis A virus during the period, about 50 years earlier, when they engaged in raids on Luso-Brasilian settlers, that the virus failed to persist in the tribe when they withdrew into isolation, and that those who had been infected maintained antibody titers without boosting since that time.