Kinetics of maternal hepatitis a antibody decay in infants: implications for vaccine use

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Abstract
We conducted a seroepidemiologic study to evaluate the kinetics of maternal hepatitis A antibody decay in infants. Serum samples obtained from 200 infants at 2 and 4 months of age were tested for hepatitis A antibody. Seventy-six infants (38%) were hepatitis A antibody-positive with a geometric mean antibody titer of 2634 mIU/ml. Samples collected at 4, 6 and/or 12 months of age showed seropositivity rates of 100, 95 and 39%, respectively. These data indicate that maternal antibody levels remained high through the first 6 months of life but decayed significantly by 12 months of age.