[Surveillance of Hepatitis A Virus and Its Outbreak Status in the Republic of Korea, 2019 to 2022].

Hepatitis A was designated as a statutory notifiable infectious disease in 2000 and has been monitored through sentinel surveillance since 2001. Following the comprehensive revision of the Infectious Diseases Prevention and Management Act in December 2009, the surveillance system was converted to a passive surveillance system in 2011. This report describes domestic hepatitis A outbreaks reported to the Integrated Disease and Health Management System from 2019 to 2022, following a large outbreak of hepatitis A in 2019. During this period, the incidence rate of hepatitis A was highest in the 40-49-year age group, followed by the 30-39-year and 20-29-year age groups. The majority of outbreaks were reported in 2019 and 2021, and the most common source locations were restaurants (28 outbreaks in 2019, 6 outbreaks in 2021) and side-dish stores (1 outbreaks in 2019, 6 outbreaks in 2021). This indicates the importance of practicing good personal hygiene and food hygiene as preventive measures against hepatitis A infection. In addition, the analysis identified salted clams imported from China as a major source of hepatitis A infection. Therefore, food safety and management systems need to be strengthened and the public should be provided with health information about hepatitis A.