Vol.59 No.4 July 2011
A questionnaire about the HBs antibody check after Hepatitis B Vaccination
1)Department of Vaccines Marketing, MSD KK., 1-13-12 Kudan-kita, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
2)Department of Pharmacovigilance, MSD KK.
3)Department of Vaccine Group, Medical Information, MSD KK.
Abstract
Prevention of hepatitis B virus(HBV) infection is a major public health issue. HB vaccine plays an important role in preventing HBV infection. The package insert of HB vaccine was revised in April 2010, and the following sentences were added to the "Precautions": "Consideration should be given to serological testing approximately one to two months following a complete course of HB vaccine. Additional doses may need to be considered for persons who do not respond or have a sub-optimal response to a course of vaccinations". To investigate the actual performance of antibody checking and the level of recognition of the package insert revision by health care professionals, we performed a survey by questionnaire and received complete replies from 105 institutions. A seroconversion check after 3 doses of HB vaccine was performed at 64% of the institutions. Antibody checking at a suitable time (one to two months after the 3rd dose) was performed by 56% of these institutions and 69% checked the antibody titer by CLIA. We also asked about the future intentions of the institutions that answered "We did not measure the antibody at a suitable time". It was commented by 43% of these institutions that it seemed to be difficult to perform antibody measurement at an appropriate time because blood sampling was usually only performed at a periodic medical examination. Moreover, we asked about the administration of an additional dose of the vaccine to persons who did not show seroconversion. Additional inoculation of Heptavax®-II was not performed at 47% of these institutions. We also asked about the future intentions of these institutions, and the comment was made by 86% of them that "booster immunization" would be done by some method (other HBV vaccine inoculation, etc.). We concluded that the package insert revision was effective for improving recognition of the importance of checking seroconversion and performing booster immunization.
Key word
hepatitis B, vaccine, antibody, questionnaire
Received
September 21, 2010
Accepted
May 17, 2011
Jpn. J. Chemother. 59 (4): 379-385, 2011
