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Long‐term follow‐up of hepatitis B vaccination in susceptible hospital personnel
Author(s) -
CHAN CHOYU,
LEE SHOUDONG,
TSAI YANGTE,
LO KWANGJUEI
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of gastroenterology and hepatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.214
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1440-1746
pISSN - 0815-9319
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1746.1992.tb00977.x
Subject(s) - medicine , vaccination , term (time) , hepatitis a , virology , hepatitis , pediatrics , intensive care medicine , physics , quantum mechanics
Two hundred and sixty‐seven susceptible hospital personnel who had been randomly divided into three groups to receive different doses (5 μg, 2 μg or 1 μg) of a plasma‐derived hepatitis B vaccine on a four‐dose schedule were investigated annually for 4 years. Of them, 251 were vaccine responders. The percentages of persistence of antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti‐HBs) in these 3 groups were 95.5% (84/88), 92.3% (72/78) and 95.3% (81/85), respectively ( P > 0.05). During the follow‐up period, 12 of 21 (57.1%) responders with low anti‐HBs titres (10–100 miu/mL) and 3 of 48 (6.3%) responders with medium anti‐HBs titres (101–1000 miu/mL) were found to be anti‐HBs seronegative, while none of the 182 candidates with high anti‐HBs levels (> 1000 miu/mL) lost their anti‐HBs. The 4 year cumulative rate of natural booster in the responders was 11.6% (29/251). None of the candidates became HBsAg positive during the follow‐up period. This study revealed that low dose hepatitis B vaccine can provide satisfactory immunogenic response and long‐term efficacy in Chinese adults and that the persistence of immunogenicity is not related to the vaccine dose but to the candidate's own initial anti‐HBs response.