Vaccination against hepatitis B virus: are Thai medical students sufficiently protected?
Medical students are frequently at risk of being infected by hepatitis B virus (HBV) via occupational exposure to infected blood or body fluids. In 2002, the Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital provided screening tests for HBV serology to all medical students for a vaccination campaign against the infection. There were 1,165 medical students tested. Eight hundred and eleven (69.6%) students had immunity by previous vaccination, but more importantly 212 (18.2%) had no immunity and required vaccination. Most of the students who needed to be vaccinated were in the pre-clinical year (82.5%). Moreover, the students in the pre-clinical year who had previous vaccination had a 2.2 times greater risk of having negative anti-HBs than the students in the clinical year (OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.4-3.5). This is because they might have been vaccinated when they were young and the antibody waned overtime.
Techasathit
Wichai
W
Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10700, Thailand.
Ratanasuwan
Winai
W
Sonjai
Areeaue
A
Sangsiriwut
Kantima
K
Anekthananon
Thanomsak
T
Suwanagool
Surapol
S
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D013337:Students, Medical; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology; D014611:Vaccination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines