Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Mar 2;5(3):a021493.
doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a021493.

Prevention of hepatitis B

Mei-Hwei Chang  1 , Ding-Shinn Chen  2
Affiliations
Review

Prevention of hepatitis B

Mei-Hwei Chang et al. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. .

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes life-threatening liver disease. It is transmitted through a horizontal route or a mother-to-infant route, and the latter is the major route in endemic areas. Prevention of HBV infection by immunization is the best way to eliminate HBV-related diseases. The HBV vaccine is the first human vaccine using a viral antigen from infected persons, which is safe and effective. Either passive immunization by hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIG) or active immunization by HBV vaccine is effective, and a combination of both yields the best efficacy in preventing HBV infection. The impact of universal HBV immunization is huge, with 90%-95% effectiveness in preventing chronic HBV infection. It is the first cancer preventive vaccine with a protective efficacy against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) of ∼ 70%. Nevertheless, further effort is still needed to avoid vaccine failure and to increase the global coverage rate.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Long-term serial seropidemiologic surveys showing no increase of HBsAg-positive rates for at least 20 years in Taiwan (Ni et al. 2012).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Beasley RP 2009. Rocks along the road to the control of HBV and HCC. Ann Epidemiol 19: 231–234. - PubMed
    1. Beasley RP, Hwang LY, Lin CC, Leu ML, Stevens CE, Szmuness W, Chen KP 1982. Incidence of hepatitis B virus infections in preschool children in Taiwan. J Infect Dis 146: 198–204. - PubMed
    1. Beasley RP, Hwang LY, Lin CC, Ko YC, Twu SJ 1983a. Incidence of hepatitis among students at a university in Taiwan. Am J Epidemiol 117: 213–222. - PubMed
    1. Beasley RP, Hwang LY, Stevens CE, Lin CC, Hsieh FJ, Wang KY, Sun TS, Szmuness W 1983b. Efficacy of hepatitis B immune globulin for prevention of perinatal transmission of the hepatitis B virus carrier state: Final report of a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Hepatology 3: 135–141. - PubMed
    1. Beasley RP, Hwang LY, Lee GC, Lan CC, Roan CH, Huang FY, Chen CL 1983c. Prevention of perinatally transmitted hepatitis B virus infections with hepatitis B immune globulin and hepatitis B vaccine. Lancet 2: 1099–1102. - PubMed

MeSH terms