Protective Antibodies against Hepatitis A in the Healthcare Workers of a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Objective: To determine protective levels of anti-hepatitis A virus immunoglobulin G (anti-HAV IgG) in healthcare workers (HCWs) of a tertiary care hospital and evaluate its association with demographic variables, vaccination status and previous history of jaundice.

Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done at Provincial Headquarter Hospital, Gilgit, from September 2025 to February 2026 after ethical approval. After taking written informed consent, 355 HCWs were included using nonprobability convenience sampling.  Their blood samples were taken through venipuncture using aseptic technique. The levels of anti-HAV antibodies were measured using a quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. The data was entered and analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27.

Results: Out of 355 HCWs, 338(95.2%) had protective levels of anti-HAV IgG. One hundred and four (29.3%) of the HCWs had a history of jaundice. Only 34(9.6%) of the HCWs were vaccinated. The antibody levels did not show any significant variations based on their age, gender, type of healthcare workers or vaccination. The majority of the healthcare workers with a previous history of jaundice had protective antibody levels, with a significant p-value of 0.0001.

Conclusion: The majority of healthcare workers in our setup are immune to HAV infection. A very few individuals among our population are vaccinated. A greater percentage of the HCWs have subclinical exposure, leading to seropositivity. All the vaccinated HCWs and most of the HCWs with a previous history of jaundice have protective antibody levels. Our results do not suggest routine testing of anti-HAV antibody levels and vaccination in our setup.