Effectiveness of single‐dose administration of inactivated hepatitis A virus vaccination in the Republic of Korea armed forces, 2013‐2016

The Republic of Korea Armed Forces has implemented the hepatitis A virus (HAV) vaccination programme with a single‐dose administration schedule in new recruits since 2013. A single‐dose administration was selected for economic feasibility. We analysed the effectiveness of the single‐dose HAV vaccination in a young and healthy population. To measure the effectiveness of the programme, we observed the incidence of HAV between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. A comparison between the two groups during the vaccine introduction period (2013‐2016) revealed a lower incidence rate of infection in the vaccinated group (3 cases/603 550 person‐years) than in the unvaccinated group (21 cases/1 020 450 person‐years). The effectiveness of single‐dose HAV vaccination was found to be 75.85%.