Abstract
Hepatitis B (HB) is a serious public health problem in China. Up to now, the hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination was the most cost-effective way to prevent HBV infection. Since 1992, when the Chinese government prioritized implementing the HBV vaccinations for newborns, China began to see a larger reduction in HBV infections. For children under 5 years, the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) has decreased to 1.0%. However, many additional challenges for the prevention and control of HBV infection in China remain. There is a lack of knowledge of the significant impact of the HBV vaccination for the general public with 93 million HBV carriers and chronic HBV patients as infection sources. Therefore, the HBV vaccine application should focus on the optimization of immunization strategies according to HBV prevalence characteristics, improve the public's knowledge of HBV vaccinations, and help to ensure the protective effects of the HBV vaccine.
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest
No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.
Funding
This work was supported by the National 12th Five Major Special Projects Funding Program (No. 2012ZX10004701) and National High Technology Research and Development Program (“863” program, No. 2012AA02A402) from the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China.