Early immunisation with hepatitis B vaccine: a five-year study

We evaluated the response to the recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine using an a ccelerated schedule versus the traditional schedule by studying the immunol ogic memory induced in 200 children with HBs-Ag negative mothers. At seroco nversion, the traditional schedule presented a higher percentage of childre n with serum HBs-Ag concentrations over 100 mIU/ml than the accelerated sch edule. After five years this difference was no longer statistically signifi cant and children who presented anti-HBsAg concentrations below 10 mUI/ml r eceived an additional booster dose which stimulated the antibody concentrat ion to exceed 100 mIU/ml in all cases. Recombinant HBV vaccine induced bett er long term immunologic memory when it was administered earlier. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.