Impact of Hepatitis B Vaccination in Children Born to HBsAg-Positive Mothers: a 20-year Retrospective Study
Background: Preventive measures remain the best approach to control the spread of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Patients and Methods: To evaluate the effectiveness of vaccination against HBV, we conducted a 20-year retrospective study on 100 subjects, born to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)...
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Published in | Infection Vol. 37; no. 4; pp. 340 - 343 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Munchen
Munchen : Urban and Vogel
01.08.2009
Urban and Vogel Springer Springer Nature B.V |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Background: Preventive measures remain the best approach to control the spread of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Patients and Methods: To evaluate the effectiveness of vaccination against HBV, we conducted a 20-year retrospective study on 100 subjects, born to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive mothers, who had received postexposure prophylaxis at the Clinic of Infectious Diseases (Siena University, Italy) during 1984-2004. All patients were tested for the presence of HBsAg, anti-HBs and anti-HB core antigen (anti-HBc). Results: Two subjects (2%) acquired the infection as shown by the presence of anti-HBc. Of the 98 patients who did not acquire the infection, 62 of these (63.3%) had an anti-HBs concentration considered protective ([double dagger] 10 mIU/ml). The percentage of protected subjects decreased in relation to time from vaccination with a significant reduction (p = 0.009) of anti-HBs geometric mean titre (GMT) after 5 years, which reached the level of 10 mIU/ml after about 15 years. No patients without protective concentration have acquired the infection as of today. Only 12% of the HBsAgpositive mothers were followed in specialized structures after pregnancy, reflecting the scarce knowledge of the problem in the general population. Conclusion: Our data, while confirming the effectiveness of anti hepatitis B vaccination, highlight the need for postvaccination follow-up, particularly in high-risk categories, to prolong protection, through booster doses if necessary. We show, moreover, the importance of maintaining active surveillance in the territory to improve follow-up to chronic carriers and to sensitize families. |
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Bibliography: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s15010-008-8252-3 ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0300-8126 1439-0973 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s15010-008-8252-3 |