LAUSR

In Taiwan, an outbreak of acute hepatitis A (AHA) infection has been identified since June 2015. Approximately half of the cases occurred in HIV‐infected men who have sex with men (MSM). We used the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (TCDC)‐operated National Disease Surveillance Systems (NDSS) to identify the incidence of AHA during 2011‐2016. Between June 2015 and December 2016, a total of 1268 AHA cases were documented, and 601 cases (47.4%) were co‐infected with HIV; the majority of whom were MSM (98.4%). Each AHA case was matched to two HIV‐infected controls without AHA reported in the NDSS on age (± 5 years), risk factor of HIV infection, HIV diagnosis date (± 30 days) and county/city of residence at HIV diagnosis. Three hundred forty‐three HIV/AHA cases were matched to 686 controls. In multivariable conditional logistic regression analysis, a previous gonorrhoea (adjusted OR=1.77, 95% CI 1.16‐2.70) and recent (aOR=6.77, 95% CI 4.34‐10.55) or remote syphilis report (aOR=3.56, 95% CI 2.48‐5.13) were independently associated with AHA. The epidemic persisted till December 2016, and the cases with a new diagnosis of HIV infection after AHA (28/301, 9.3%) increased after July 2016 (P = .001). HIV/AHA cases were centralized in northern and central metropolitan areas and HIV‐infected MSM with a recent history of sexually transmitted diseases in Taiwan. We recommend surveillance of associated behavioural and virologic characteristics and HAV counselling and testing for HIV‐infected men.