Vaccination program cuts hepatitis A rate

The rate of hepatitis A infections in the United States has shrunk by 76 percent since the beginning of a vaccination program in 1999 targeting children in 17 high-risk states, federal researchers reported today.

The program has driven the rate of infection down to 2.6 cases per 100,000 people, or 7,653 cases, in 2003, the latest year for which figures are available.

That is the lowest rate since monitoring of the disease began in the 1960s, according to the report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.