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.

美国目前受到广泛的甲型肝炎病毒 (HAV) 爆发的影响。我们调查了自 2016 年以来美国血浆来源供体的 HAV 发病率。分析了来自 HAV 阳性频繁供体的连续捐赠的常见生物标志物，以获得感染过程的详细信息。我们发现，随着时间的推移，爆发热点不断变化，发病率显着增加。尽管个体生物标志物谱变化很大，但 HAV RNA 通常具有高峰值和双相下降，并且通常在几个月内仍可检测到。一名捐献者具有指示先前暴露的生物标志物模式。我们的研究结果表明，当前的 HAV 爆发已经蔓延到血浆供体人群中。提供的详细结果提高了我们对 HAV 感染和相关公共卫生方面的理解。此外，捕获完整的 RNA 曲线可以估计 HAV 倍增时间。