Sudden rise in uptake of hepatitis B vaccination among injecting drug users associated with a universal vaccine programme in prisons

• Published in: Vaccine Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 210 - 214
• Main Authors: Hutchinson, Sharon J., Wadd, Sarah, Taylor, Avril, Bird, Sheila M., Mitchell, Alan, Morrison, David S, Ahmed, Syed, Goldberg, David J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 25.11.2004; Elsevier; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Applied microbiology; Biological and medical sciences; Cross-Sectional Studies; Drug use; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gender; Hepatitis; Hepatitis B - epidemiology; Hepatitis B - transmission; Hepatitis B vaccination; Hepatitis B Vaccines - administration & dosage; Hepatitis B Vaccines - immunology; Hepatitis B virus; Human viral diseases; Humans; Immunization; Imprisonment; Infections; Infectious diseases; Injecting drug users; Interviews; Male; Medical sciences; Microbiology; Polls & surveys; Prison; Prisoners; Prisons; Substance abuse treatment; Substance Abuse, Intravenous - epidemiology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Vaccination; Vaccines; Vaccines, antisera, therapeutical immunoglobulins and monoclonal antibodies (general aspects); Viral diseases; Viral hepatitis; United Kingdom > UK; Scotland; British Isles, Scotland; Prison; Hepatitis B vaccination; Injecting drug users; Infection; Viral hepatitis B; Drug addiction; Vaccination coverage; Viral disease; Vaccination; Digestive diseases; Hepatic disease; Vaccine
• ISSN: 0264-410X; 1873-2518
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2004.05.019

Hitherto, services have failed to deliver the UK Government’s 1988 recommendation to vaccinate injecting drug users (IDUs) against hepatitis B virus (HBV). In April 1999, the Scottish Prison Service implemented an initiative to offer HBV vaccination to all inmates; we sought to determine the impact of this initiative on the IDU population. Among community-recruited IDUs (who had injected for ≤5 years) in Glasgow, vaccine uptake was significantly higher among those surveyed in 2001–2002 (52% of 387) than in 1993 (16% of 166), 1994 (19% of 138) or January–March 1999 (15% of 128); of the 2001–2002 vaccinees, 56% had been vaccinated in prison. Our results indicate that the universal offer of vaccination to all prisoners, within two years of the initiative’s implementation, has had a dramatic impact on uptake among IDUs.