Archives of Clinical Infectious Diseases
Nikdokht Taghavi1, Orang Eilami1, Mahmoud Nabavi1, Eznollah Azargashb1, 
Davod Yadegarynia1,*, Afshin Mohammad Alizadeh1Although recombinant hepatitis B vaccine is effective in a majority of population, a significant percent may do not response (up to 10%). Old age, obesity, heavy smoking and immunologic impairment have been associated with lower anti HBs responses. In the present study, the efficacy of vaccine and effects of the abovementioned factors have been evaluated.
Of 111 health care workers in Boo-Ali hospital, 72 participants completed primary vaccination series and antibody tittering. They received 20?g of recombinant HBV vaccine (Heberbiovac, Cuba) in standard schedule. Anti-HBs was determined by ELISA test (Diakey, South Korea) one month following the third dose.
The lowest completion rate was reported among nursing staff and physicians (17%). Seroprotection (anti-HBs?10IU/L) was achieved in 86.1% of participants. Among seroprotected individuals, 52.8% were low-responders (anti- HBs titer of 10-99IU/L) and 33.3% were good responders (anti-HBs titer of >100IU/L). The independent predictors of responsiveness were age less than 40 (OR=3.5, 95%CI=1.8-14.6, p<0.05), non-smoking status (OR=2.9, 95%CI=1.5- 17.2, p<0.05), and body mass index less than 25kg/m2 (OR=4.3, 95%CI=1.9-18.0, p<0.05). Of 10 non-responders, 7 received booster dose while anti-HBs titer was determined only in one.
The primary factors associated with completion of immunization may not be amenable to job-education level. Non-compliance among non-responders was quite high (90%). This situation seems to be grim for health care workers and warranted appropriate interventions.
© 2006, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
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