Effect of the interval between birth and second dose of hepatitis B vaccine on perinatal transmission of hepatitis B virus

ABSTRACT

Preventing perinatal transmission is important for hepatitis B (HepB) elimination. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to assess the interval between HepB birth-dose (HepB-BD) to second-dose (HepB-SD) vaccination on perinatal transmission. Among 39,313 infants born to HepB s-antigen (HBsAg)-positive mothers from a Korean national database 38,411 (97.7%) had completed timely immunophylaxis with HepB-BD 41,572 (99.8%) with hepatitis B immune globulin, and 1027 (2.6%) were HBsAg-positive at ≥ 9 months. Maternal factors (i.e. HepB e-antigen status, age, or nationality) were associated with an increased risk of infection whereas short gestational length decreased it. The HepB-BD – HepB-SD interval (<8 vs. ≥8 weeks) did not alter the risk.

KEYWORDS:

• Hepatitis B vaccine
• mother-to-child transmission
• hepatitis B virus
• schedule
• interval
• immunoprophylaxis

Acknowledgments

Editorial assistance with the preparation of the manuscript was provided by inScience Communications, Springer Healthcare Ltd, UK, and was funded by Sanofi.

Disclosure statement

JCVZ is a Sanofi employee and may hold shares and/or stock options in the company. TUY, HAP, CWJ, DK and YJ declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and publication of this manuscript.

Author contributors

JCVZ and TUY conceived the study; TUY, JCVZ, HAP, and YJ designed the study; HAP did the data analysis; TUY, JCVZ, HAP, CWJ, and DK contributed to the interpretation of the data; TUY and JCVZ wrote the manuscript, which was critically reviewed and revised by HAP, CWJ, DK and YJ. All authors were involved in the approval of the final content before submission.

Data availability statement

Study’s supporting data not public; available on request from TUY.

Additional information

Funding

Sanofi provided financial support for publication fees.