The need for more aggressive follow-up of children born to hepatitis B surface antigen-positive mothers: lessons from the Louisiana Perinatal Hepatitis B Immunization Program

Abstract

Rates of vaccination completion and postvaccination serologic testing were low for children in this program. Even with these low vaccination rates, however, we estimate that the program prevented 74% of HBV infection and 87% of HBV carriage in this group of high risk children, suggesting that failure to vaccinate rather than vaccine failure was the major obstacle to prevention of perinatal HBV transmission. Serologic testing was useful in that it identified children with chronic HBV infection and children who may have needed additional doses of vaccine, but it should be performed < 18 months after the last dose of vaccine is given. More aggressive follow-up of these children for both vaccination and serologic testing is needed.