Vaccination against hepatitis B virus infection in neonates.

The efficacy of hepatitis B virus vaccine to prevent the vertical transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in infants born to HBsAg carrier mothers was assessed in 20 mother-infant pairs. A dose of 10 micrograms of HBV vaccine was injected intramuscularly at 0, 30 and 180 days after birth to newborn infants. Neither local nor systemic reaction was observed after the administration of HBV vaccine. The incidence of persistent HBsAg carrier infants born from e-antigen positive HBsAg carrier mothers in HBV vaccine treated group was only 37.5% at one year of age as compared to 85.7% in the untreated control group. Anti-HBs developed in 88.2% of infants after the third dose of HBV vaccination with a mean anti-HBs titer of 1733.1 IU/l. It is concluded that HBV vaccine was effective and safe in reducing the rate of vertical transmission of HBV from the HBsAg carrier mothers to their infants. The vaccine was also immunogenic since almost 90% of the immunized infants were able to produce anti-HBs antibody in high titer after the third dose of vaccination.