Hepatitis B immunisation in Britain: time to change?

doi:10.1136/bmj.38797.621516.47

BMJ 2006;332:804-805 (8 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.38797.621516.47 (published 24 March 2006)

Editorial

Hepatitis B immunisation in Britain: time to change?

The increasing prevalence of chronic infection, mainly due toimmigration from endemic areas, may warrant universal immunisation

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

The World Health Organization recommended that, by 1997, allcountries should introduce a programme of universal immunisationagainst hepatitis B at birth, in infancy, or in adolescence,according to endemicity.¹ By the end of 2005, 168 countriesworldwide and 44 of 52 countries in WHO's European region hadimplemented this. The United Kingdom continues to implementa selective immunisation programme for hepatitis B, targetinghigh risk groups and screening all women attending antenatalclinics so that the babies of any infected mothers can be immunisedat birth. This approach has come in for some criticism, notonly internationally but also within the UK.² Should the UKnow adopt universal immunisation against hepatitis B?

In contrast with other European countries, particularly in southernEurope, the UK has one of the lowest incidences of hepatitisB infection worldwide,³ but has about 180 000 people with chronichepatitis B infection.⁴ The Netherlands . . . [Full text of this article]

Jangu Banatvala, emeritus professor of clinical virology

King's College London School of Medicine, St Thomas's Campus, London SE1 7EH
(jangu@btopenworld.com)

Pierre Van Damme, director

WHO Collaborating Centre for Control and Prevention of Viral Hepatitis, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Nedret Emiroglu, adviser

Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Immunization, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark

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