Intradermal vaccination against hepatitis B in a group of medical students.

A prospective study of a low-dose (one-tenth) intradermal regimen using recombinant hepatitis B vaccine was undertaken during two consecutive years in 4th-year medical students. Eighty-one per cent of the vaccinees (123/152) sero-converted with anti-HBs levels of greater than 10 IU/l. The lower titre of hepatitis B surface antibodies compared with published studies on intramuscular immunisation, together with a sero-conversion rate of only 81%, makes the intradermal method, in our opinion, a suboptimal form of hepatitis B immunisation.