Obesity May Decrease Hepatitis B Vaccine Effectiveness, But Old Age Does Not


— Christine M. Kukka, Project Manager, HBV Advocate

South African researchers who are working on developing an effective vaccine against HIV infection, examined other factors that could render vaccines ineffective and found that obesity may hinder the performance of the hepatitis B vaccine.

According to their report in the December issue of the journal PLoS One, researchers conducted a follow-up study of women who had been recently immunized against hepatitis B. None of the women were HIV-infected.

They found that obese women with a high body mass index (BMI) often failed to develop adequate hepatitis B antibodies after immunization, which are needed to protect them against infection.

Obese individuals (BMI index at or greater than 30kg/m(2)) were significantly more likely to be vaccine non-responders following two HBV vaccine doses, they reported.

"There was no observed association between vaccine responses and age, method of contraception or time from vaccination to antibody measurement," they wrote, suggesting that obesity may limit the vaccine's effectiveness.

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24349359

An unrelated article in the December issue of the journal Vaccine found that old age does not decrease the effectiveness of the hepatitis B vaccine in the elderly. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers reported that 22 out of 27 residents in an assisted living facility responded well to the vaccine and generated adequate protective antibodies after immunization.

The residents had been vaccinated against both hepatitis A and B following an outbreak of hepatitis B resulting from improperly re-used medical devices. Of the 27 residents who were screened for hepatitis B surface antibodies after their three-dose immunizations, 22 (81%) achieved protection. The vaccine protected even elderly residents age 75 and older.

"Adult vaccine recipients of all ages, even those over 60 years of age, demonstrated a robust capacity for achieving hepatitis B seroprotection in response to the combined hepatitis A/B vaccine," they wrote. "The role for vaccination in interrupting HBV transmission during an outbreak remains unclear, but concerns about age-related response to hepatitis vaccine may be insufficient to justify foregoing vaccination of susceptible residents of assisted living facilities."

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24370706

Source: HBV Journal Review January 1, 2014, Vol 11, no 1   

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