%0 Journal Article
%T Evaluation of immune status against hepatitis B in children with thalassemia major in Egypt: A single center study
%A Hanan H. Soliman
%A Ibrahim A. Kabbash
%A Mohamed R. El-Shanshory
%A Hala M. Nagy
%J Journal of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
%D 2012
%I Association of Health Investigations
%X Objectives: Thalassemic children with repeated blood transfusion are at higher risk of suffering transfusion relatedinfections including hepatitis B virus (HBV). HBV vaccine immunogenicity in several studies showed variable responserates. The aim of this study is to evaluate the immunogenic effect of hepatitis B vaccine in thalassemic children at differentage groups.Materials and methods: After ethical approval and informed parent consent, 125 diagnosed thalassemic patients wererecruited from the Hematology/Oncology Unit, Pediatric Department, Tanta University Hospital. PatientĄ¯s transfusion,and vaccination history, clinical data, and blood samples were obtained. PatientĄ¯s sera were stored at -20ĄãC till tested forAnti-hepatitis B surface (anti-HBs) by ELISA. Patients with titers <10 IU were tested for HBs-Ag.Results: Although none of our cases had hepatitis B virus infection, only 20.8% had a protective anti-HBs titer (>10IU/L). Significantly higher percentage of protected patients (40.1%) were younger than 3 years of age, while age groupsabove 3years showed a significant trend towards having non protective titers (p=0.003). Anti-HBs titers werenĄ¯t correlatedto age, ferritin, liver enzymes, and duration of transfusion or number of transfused packs.Conclusion: Protective Anti-HBs titer was reduced after age of 3 years in our patients. So, we recommend screeningof thalassemic patients at age of 3 years to evaluate the need of a booster dose. J Microbiol Infect Dis 2012; 2(2): 44-49Key words: Thalassemia, HBV, vaccination, immunogenicity
%K Thalassemia
%K HBV
%K vaccination
%K immunogenicity
%U http://www.jcmid.org/upload/sayi/8/JMID-00560.pdf