IMMUNE STATUS IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN BORN AFTER MASS HEPATITIS B VACCINATION PROGRAM IN TAIWAN
Resource
VACCINE v.16 n.17 pp.1683-1687
Journal
VACCINE
Journal Volume
v.16
Journal Issue
n.17
Pages
1683-1687
Date Issued
1998
Date
1998
Author(s)
LIN, DING-BANG
LEE, YAO-LING
CHANG LAI, SHENG-PING
CHEN, CHIEN-JEN
Abstract
A mass hepatitis B vaccination program began in Taiwan in
1984. In order to determine the immune status of hepatitis B
virus (HBV) infection among preschool children, a total of
25 kindergartens in 20 townships and metropolitan precincts
in central Taiwan were randomly selected through stratified
sampling. Serum specimens of 2130 healthy preschool children
aged 2-6 years old were screened for the HBV markers and
liver function in 1996, HBV surface antigen (HBsAg),
antibody against HBsAg (anti-HBs) and antibody against HBV
core antigen (anti-HBc) were tested by reverse passive
hemagglutination (RPHA), enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and
radioimmunoassay (RIA) using commercial kits. HBV
vaccination rate of the preschool children was 98%, and
complete vaccination rate (three or four doses of HBV
vaccine) was 94%, The HBsAg seropositive rate was 4.5% among
incomplete vaccinees and 1.3% among complete vaccinees. The
anti-HBs was detectable in 1637 of 2000 complete vaccinees(
81.9%) and in 53 of 88 incomplete vaccinees (60.2%), The
overall prevalence rate of anti-HBc was 2.4% (52 of 2130).
The older the age, the lower the anti-HBs seropositive rate.
The anti-HBs seropositive rates for complete vaccinees were
100% at 2 years old and 75% at 6 years old. There were no
significant differences in HBsAg-seropositive rates and anti
-HBs-seropositive rates among different residential areas or
ethnic groups. There were three children who were
seropositive on HBsAg, anti-HBs and anti-HBc, whether they
were infected by the vaccine-induced escape mutant of HBV
deserves scrutiny. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights
reserved.
Subjects
HBV seroepidemiology
preschool children
Taiwan
SDGs
Type
journal article