Prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis a virus (HAV) in blood donors of 13 western hemisphere countries and territories.

‘Also appearing in Spanish in the Boletin de la Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana, 1980. Work supported in part by Grant GM 21736 and RR-05737 from the United States National Institutes of Health. Contribution No. 439 from the American Red Cross. 2American Red Cross Blood Services Laboratories, Bethesda, Md., United States. 3Puerto Rico Red Cross Blood Service, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 41nstituto Dominicano de Seguros Sociales, Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic. 5Hospital General de1 Oeste, SAS-Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, V”enezueIa. 6Prof. dr. Paul C. Flu Institute, Paramaribo, Suriname. 7Academic Hospital, Paramaribo, Suriname. *Queen Elizabeth Hospital, St. Michael, Barbados. 9Banco Central de Sangre, Rosario, Argentina. IOBanco de Sangre de la Cruz Roja Provincial de1 Guayas, Guayaquil. Ecuador. Iltouisiana Stale University-International Center for Medical Research and Training, San lose. Costa Rica. 12Departamental de Salud Piiblica de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia. I3Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile. 14ComissZo National de Hemoterapia. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 15Universidad National de Trujillo, Trujillo, Peru. *%nstituto Mexican0 de1 Seguro Social, Mexico City, Mexico. I7Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. etiologic agent of type A hepatitis. This led to development of tests for evaluating serologic evidence of past hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection in healthy populations. Antibodies to HAV are believed widely distributed in adult populations (2); however, very little is known about the prevalence of these antibodies among the healthy adult populations of most Latin American and Caribbean countries. The results reported here are based on the testing of blood samples from donors in 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries and territories for antibodies to HAV.