Evaluation of the efficacy of accelerated hepatitis B vaccine among students of Assiut Nursing School and College

Introduction Hepatitis B (HB) vaccine prevents infection with hepatitis B virus, thus reducing the incidence of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and transmission of infection to susceptible individuals. Vaccine-induced immune response is defined as anti-HBs titer greater than 10 mIU/ml after complete vaccination schedule. Aim The aim was to evaluate the efficacy of accelerated HB vaccine among students of Assiut Nursing School and College. Participants and methods This study included 100 students of Assiut Nursing School and College, and 10% of them had received only a single dose of HB vaccine previously (in the period 6–12 months before the study) but had not completed the vaccination schedule, and their prestudy anti-HBs titer was less than 10 mIU/ml. Prevaccination testing of HBs Ag, Anti-HBs, Anti-HBc IgG, and HCV-Ab was negative. A vaccination schedule of 0, 1, and 2 months was used. Then, anti- HBs were measured one month after the last vaccine dose to detect antibody response by third-generation ELISA. Results Postvaccination anti-HBs titer was significantly higher in comparison with its prevaccination level (4.072.62 before vs 66.44±11.61 after vaccination; P=0.01). The authors found that students receiving a single dose of HB vaccine in the period 6–12 months before the study had high anti-HBs titer either before the study (9.78±2.01) and after the study (179.50±40.11) in comparison with those not receiving a vaccine dose recently. Conclusion Seroprotection rate was 100%, that is, all enrolled participants show postvaccination anti-HBs titer greater than 10 mIU/ml, and students with a higher prevaccination anti-HBs titer had a higher postvaccination anti-HBs antibody titer.