If a patient does not seroconvert after Hepatitis B immunisation, what should a GP do?
Vaccination for Hepatitis B is recommended for all infants, children and young adolescents, as well as adults at higher risk of exposure.
In most individuals specific antibodies will develop and become detectable in the blood after Hepatitis B vaccination, with correlative protection of 10 international units per milliliter.
“We’ve taken the approach in our institution of actually using a combined hep A, hep B vaccine called Twinrix,” says Dr Nigel Crawford, paediatrician and medical head of immunisation services at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
“If they don’t convert after that then you then get into a situation where there are intradermal strategies or other things.
“Again, [it’s a] case-by-case scenario. You will have a very small proportion of patients who will never have a true correlative protection.”
Dr Crawford answers the question, ‘If a patient does not seroconvert after hepatitis B immunisation, what should a GP do?’ in this video.
