Hepatitis A Virus Vaccine Escape Variants and Potential New Serotype Emergence

Abstract

Six hepatitis A virus antigenic variants that likely escaped the protective effect of available vaccines were isolated, mostly from men who have sex with men. The need to complete the proper vaccination schedules is critical, particularly in the immunocompromised population, to prevent the emergence of vaccine-escaping variants.

Keywords

• viruses
• hepatitis A virus
• molecular epidemiology
• quasispecies
• capsid structural constraints
• codon usage