[Assessing the force of hepatitis A virus infection in Colombia by applying catalytic models].

AIMS Estimating the force of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection concerning a 1- to 15-year-old child population being attended at six healthcare centres in Colombia by applying catalytic models. METHODS Anti-HAV seroprevalence was estimated in 2,152 patients attending six health centres in 5 Colombian cities; based on such estimation, the force of infection and average age of infection were obtained for each region. RESULTS The 1- to 4-year-old age group's force of infection was 0.15 in Barranquilla; for the other cities the force of infection was 0.02 in Bogotá for the 5- to 15-year-old age group and 0.06 in Medellin for the 1- to 9-year-old age group. Average infection age in Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cali and Medellin was 10.68 to 11.97 years-old. CONCLUSION There was high anti-HAV prevalence in the young-adult population, average infection age being 10.69 to 11.97 years-old, thereby presenting a similar pattern to that of developing regions having intermediate level of endemicity.