Hepatitis B is a global public health issue, with some 2 billion people having current or past infection. In Africa, 65 million are chronically infected, an estimated 2.5 million of them in South Africa (SA). Hepatitis B and the associated complications of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma are entirely vaccine preventable. SA was one of the first ten countries in Africa to introduce univer...

The focus of the Children's Vaccine Initiative is to encourage the discovery of technology that will make vaccines more readily available to developing countries. Our strategy has been to genetically engineer plants so that they can be used as inexpensive alternatives to fermentation systems for production of subunit antigens. In this paper we report on the immunological response elicited in vi...

Literature review shows that hepatitis C infection may increase the risk of non-hodgkin lymphoma. Reactivation of hepatitis B infection has been reported in patients with hairy cell leukemia after chemotherapy and/or splenectomy. We present hepatitis B surface (HBs) antigenemia and concurrent hepatitis C virus (HCV) seropositivity in a case of hairy cell leukemia. Key Words: Hairy cell leukemi...

The success of childhood vaccination against hepatitis B relies on persistence of immunity into adolescence and adulthood. In 2000, two hexavalent vaccines with a hepatitis B component (Hexavac, Infanrix hexa) were introduced in Germany. Hexavac was withdrawn in 2005 amidst concerns about its long-term hepatitis B protection. We compared hepatitis B surface antibody (anti-HBs) levels in childre...

BACKGROUND Chimeric virus-like particles (VLP) allow the display of foreign antigens on their surface and have proved valuable in the development of safe subunit vaccines or drug delivery. However, finding an inexpensive production system and a VLP scaffold that allows stable incorporation of diverse, large foreign antigens are major challenges in this field. RESULTS In this study, a versatil...

A literature search was carried out to investigate the factors that influence the protective efficacy (PE) of hepatitis B vaccines when given to neonates of hepatitis B surface antigen and e antigen positive mothers. Hepatitis B vaccines with either high or low antigen doses are very effective in preventing chronic hepatitis B infection in neonates at risk, but there is evidence that with lower...

Occult HBV infection of hemodialysis (HD) patients is informative in terms of virus transmission. It may be of clinical importance in HD patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of anti-HBc in the HD Patients. Number of 126 patients undergoing hemodialysis were included in this study from main hemodialysis units in Yazd. Hepatitis B surface antigens (HBsAg), hepatitis B...

The husbands of 68 hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) carrier-state wives were tested for the presence of hepatitis B surface antibody (HBsAb) and antigen (HBsAg) to assess possible transmission of HBsAg. Eight (11.8%) of the 68 husbands gave negative results for HBsAg and 22 (32.4%) positive results for HBsAb. Furthermore, eight (26.7%) of 30 husbands with presumed HBsAg transmission from the...

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to evaluate the level of hepatitis B immunity among undergraduate students 23 years after commencement of the nationwide hepatitis B childhood immunization program in Malaysia. METHODS A total of 402 serum samples obtained from volunteer undergraduate students were screened for the presence of hepatitis B surface antibodies using qualitative ELISA. RESULTS Result...

BACKGROUND Follow-up studies of recipients of hepatitis B vaccine from endemic areas have reported loss of antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) in a high proportion of persons vaccinated at birth. In contrast, the long-term durability of antibody in persons vaccinated as adults in nonendemic areas is not well defined. We aimed to assess the durability of anti-HBs among healthcare ...