Good News Story: The Remarkable Hepatitis B Vaccine Story

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W-Q He, GN Guo, C Li. Hepatology 2022; 75: 1566-1578. The impact of hepatitis B vaccination in the United States, 1999-2018

In the past 30 years, the hepatitis B vaccine has been included in infant immunization schedules in the U.S. The authors studied a large, comprehensive, and nationally representative data set (NHANES data from 1999-2018) to assess its efficacy.

Key findings:

  • HBV vaccination was associated with reduced risk of all-cause mortality (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.68–0.90) and cancer-related mortality (HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.58–1.00) 
  • The highest vaccination uptake was found among those born after 1991, at 86.5%.
  • Vaccinated participants had higher prevalence of vaccine-induced immunity than the unvaccinated (47.2% vs. 7.4%). Among those born after 1991, vaccine efficacy (VE) was found at 58% (95% CI, 18%–79%) overall and 85% for those aged ≥20 years (mean age, 22), whereas no effect was found among those born prior to 1990

Context for these findings is noted in the associated editorial (pgs 1365-1367):

HBV remains one of the most deadly viruses worldwide with nearly 1 million deaths yearly and nearly 300 million people chronically-infected. The vast majority of unvaccinated children less than 1 year of age become chronically-infected. In the U.S., 98% of children acquired HBV through vertical transmission “including 26% of pediatric cases who were born in the USA or Canada”

My take: This study shows that HBV vaccine maintains strong protection for 20 years and protects against cancer and death.

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