BMJ 2003;326:105 ( 11 January )

Letters

Vaccine induced protection against hepatitis B

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---Whittle et al report one of the few long term follow up studies of children vaccinated against hepatitis B.1 The reported reduction in the rate of carriers of hepatitis B surface antigen in two villages in the Gambia, from 13% to 1% and from 35% to 2% respectively, represents a major achievement in public health.

We are concerned, however, that those who are influential in deciding policy of hepatitis B vaccination may not appreciate that relevant information is missing in the printed version compared with the electronic one. The electronic version says that several vaccines, different vaccine dosages, and different routes (including intradermal) were used, most differing from recommendations for childhood vaccination programmes. Thus, despite the use of low dose hepatitis B vaccines intradermally, and without mentioning whether the results of the study might have been influenced by malnutrition, infection with HIV or other underlying disease, the overall . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Observational study of vaccine efficacy 14 years after trial of hepatitis B vaccination in Gambian children
Hilton Whittle, Shabbar Jaffar, Michael Wansbrough, Maimuna Mendy, Uga Dumpis, Andrew Collinson, and Andrew Hall
BMJ 2002 325: 569. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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