Seroprevalence of hepatitis B and immune response to hepatitis B vaccination in Chinese college students mainly from the rural areas of western China and born before HBV vaccination integrated into expanded program of immunization

Abstract

The prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in a population aged 15 y or older was high in China, but an immunization strategy for this population was unavailable. We investigated the seroprevalence of hepatitis B and immune response to HBV vaccine in Chinese college students (n = 2040 participants), 11.1%, 80.8%, and 8.1% had confirmed, unknown and no HBV vaccination history, respectively. The seropositive rates for HBsAg, anti-HBs sole and anti-HBs plus anti-HBc were 12.6%, 25.7%, and 30.1%, respectively. The HBsAg seropositive rate was significantly lower in participants with confirmed HBV vaccination history than in those with unknown or no vaccination history (5.3%, 13.6%, and 12.6%, respectively, P = 0.0019). The anti-HBs alone seropositive rate was significantly higher in participants with confirmed HBV vaccination history than in those with unknown or no vaccination history (37.6%, 25.3%, and 13.8%, respectively, P < 0.0001). Participants negative for HBsAg, anti-HBs, and anti-HBc at baseline (n = 600) were given three doses of recombinant HBV vaccine (GlaxoSmithKline) at month 0, 1, and 6. Robust immune response was elicited after two and three doses (seroprotective rate: 91.9% and 99.0%, respectively, and geometric mean concentration [GMC]: 95.8 and 742.6 IU/L, respectively). Fourteen months after the third dose, the anti-HBs seroprotective rate of the group remained more than 97%. The seroprotective rates and GMCs did not differ significantly by vaccination history. This study suggested that three doses of 20 μg HBV vaccine were needed for college students negative for HBsAg, anti-HBs, and anti-HBc to ensure high seroprotective rates and concentrations.

Keywords: :

• hepatitis B
• seroprevalence
• hepatitis B vaccine
• immune response
• college students

10.4161/hv.26311

Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

All authors declare no conflict of interest.

Role of the Funding Source

This study was supported by Major Science and Technology Special Project of China twelfth Five-year Plan (2012ZX10002001).

Acknowledgments

We thank the students for participating in this study; the study nurses, and other staff members of Guangxi University of Science and Technology. The authors thank Dr Lisa Nicholson, Dr Yin Peng, and Dr Yuan-Zheng Qiu for critically proofreading this manuscript. And also the authors thank Dr Qian Zhang and Dr Ming-Huan Zheng for the support of the statistical analyses in the study.