Author information
1 School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin - Madison. Madison, WI, United States.
2 Employee Health Services, UW Health, Madison, WI, United States. Electronic address: MLeClair-Netzel@uwhealth.org.
3 School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin - Madison. Madison, WI, United States. Electronic address: nfriedlander@wisc.edu.
4 Employee Health Services, UW Health, Madison, WI, United States. Electronic address: MWagner4@uwhealth.org.
5 Employee Health Services, UW Health, Madison, WI, United States. Electronic address: NKalscheur2@uwhealth.org.
6 Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health, Madison, WI, United States. Electronic address: fcaldera@medicine.wisc.edu.
7 School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin - Madison. Madison, WI, United States. Electronic address: mary.hayney@wisc.edu.
Abstract
Individuals who received the hepatitis B vaccine series as young children are entering the healthcare workforce. Our study measured the persistence of antibody to the hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) at time of employment. Among 986 individuals born in 1991 or more recently with documentation of completion of the hepatitis B vaccine series, 51% had anti-HBs < 10mIU/ml. Of these 507 healthcare workers, 446 (88%) received documented fourth dose of hepatitis B vaccine followed by another anti-HBs ≥ 28 days post vaccination; 11% (50/446 or 5% of the total population) did not mount an anamnestic response. The non-responders were more likely to be male or complete the vaccine series prior to age 7 months. Measuring anti-HBs at the time of hire in this population of healthcare workers who had documentation of hepatitis B series completion as young children may be unnecessary because of the high rate of hepatitis B vaccine protection.