The evaluation of immunization against hepatitis B vaccine among the health staff of Kashan University of Medical Sciences during 2012-2013

Hepatitis B infection is a major public health problem worldwide. An important way to prevent hepatitis infection, especially among the high-risk populations including healthcare workers is vaccination. So, this study was conducted to evaluate the post- vaccination immunologic response of health staff in Kashan University of Medical Sciences during 2012-2013. A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed on 227 staff randomly selected from the ones received the last dose of vaccine three months ago. Their blood samples were tested for Anti-HBs and Anti-HBc using the ELISA and RAPID tests, respectively. Among 227 subjects, 167(75.6%) cases were female and 56 (24.4%) male (mean age, 31.35±7.85 years). Ninety-five percent of the women responded to the vaccine (10.8% hypo-response; 14.4% intermediate-response and 70.1% hyper-response). On the other hand, 95.3% of the men responded to the vaccine (20.4% hypo-response, 20.4% intermediate- response and 55.6% hyper-response). The results of this study reveal the appropriate immune responses to vaccine one year after the vaccination. Although among the subjects the immunologic response to vaccine after one period of vaccination has not been 100%, the current protocol for hepatitis B vaccine yields the remarkable response.