TY - JOUR AU - Schoch, Stephanie AU - Wälti, Martin AU - Schemmerer, Mathias AU - Alexander, Rick AU - Keiner, Björn AU - Kralicek, Carol AU - Bycholski, Keith AU - Hyatt, Kelley AU - Knowles, Jon AU - Klochkov, Denis AU - Simon, Toby AU - Wenzel, Jürgen AU - Roth, Nathan AU - Widmer, Eleonora T1 - Hepatitis A Virus Incidence Rates and Biomarker Dynamics for Plasma Donors, United States T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2021 VL - 27 IS - 11 SP - 2818 SN - 1080-6059 AB - The United States is currently affected by widespread hepatitis A virus (HAV) outbreaks. We investigated HAV incidence rates among source plasma donors in the United States since 2016. Serial donations from HAV-positive frequent donors were analyzed for common biologic markers to obtain a detailed picture of the course of infection. We found a considerable increase in incidence rates with shifting outbreak hotspots over time. Although individual biomarker profiles were highly variable, HAV RNA typically had a high peak and a biphasic decrease and often remained detectable for several months. One donor had a biomarker pattern indicative of previous exposure. Our findings show that current HAV outbreaks have been spilling over into the plasma donor population. The detailed results presented improve our comprehension of HAV infection and related public health aspects. In addition, the capture of full RNA curves enables estimation of HAV doubling time. KW - hepatitis A KW - hepatitis A virus KW - HAV KW - viruses KW - hepatitis KW - RNA KW - IgM KW - IgG KW - alanine aminotransferase KW - ALT KW - virus doubling time KW - RNAemia KW - clinical markers KW - outbreak KW - incidence rates KW - biomarker dynamics KW - plasma donors KW - genotypes KW - United States DO - 10.3201/eid2711.204642 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/11/20-4642_article ER - End of Reference