Hepatitis B vaccination--United States, 1982-2002.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the implementation in the United States of the world's first vaccine against hepatitis B virus (HBV). In addition to acute disease, persons infected with HBV are at risk for chronic HBV infection and severe morbidity and mortality from cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Before 1982, an estimated 200,000-300,000 persons in the United States were infected annually with HBV, including approximately 20,000 children. No practical method of pre-exposure prophylaxis for HBV existed, and the only postexposure prophylaxis available was injection with hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG).