A series of hepatitis B vaccinations is a routine part of a child’s vaccination schedule, but no one knows how long immunity lasts among children born to healthy mothers. So researchers decided to measure immunity indirectly by testing the response to a booster shot in 378 healthy children and adolescents who had received hepatitis B vaccinations in infancy.
Over all, 99 percent of the children ages 5 to 7 and 83 percent of those ages 10 to 15 who received a recombinant hepatitis B vaccine responded to the booster, meaning that they showed continuing immunity. Among adolescents who had received a plasma-derived vaccine, 69 percent had an antibody response to the new shot. The older the children were, the more likely their immunity was waning: 97 percent of 5-year-olds had an antibody response, compared with 60 percent of 14-year-olds.
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