Hepatitis B Vaccine Protection May Not Be Long-Lasting

"If immunity engendered by hepatitis B vaccine wanes in older adolescents and young adults who began their vaccine series as neonates, then HBV infections could occur in older adolescence and adulthood," wrote Taraz Samandar, M.D., Ph.D., of the CDC, and colleagues from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium in Anchorage.

Most studies of HBV vaccine in children have been conducted in children who had maternal HBV exposure or household exposure. By contrast this study was conducted in participants whose mothers were HBV negative and who had no environmental exposure.

Those characteristics, Dr. Samandar pointed out, make these participants "similar to most children who received hepatitis B vaccination as part of their routine infant vaccination schedule." href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/Vaccines/tb/6347"target="_blank">read more