HAV Vaccination More Effective Before Decompensation In Hepatic Disease.(Brief Article)

2001 SEP 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Doctors are now recommending that patients with chronic liver disease receive hepatitis A virus (HAV) vaccines while they retain hepatic compensation. HAV vaccination after liver decompensation becomes apparent is not as effective, according to a U.S. study.

Although HAV vaccination is suggested for patients who have liver disease in order to avoid the increased risk of death or illness that could result from HAV infection, few studies have investigated the efficacy of vaccination in advanced, chronic liver disease sufferers, leaving doctors with very little information about immunological responsiveness in those patients, Miguel R. Arguedas and colleagues of the University of Birmingham in Alabama said in Hepatology.

To gain more knowledge about HAV vaccination in these patients, researchers compared vaccine effectiveness in 49 patients with compensated liver disease and 35 patients with decompensated liver disease, all of whom were anti-HAV antibody negative, using a standard HAV vaccination schedule.

"One month after the primary dose, 71.4% of patients with compensated liver disease had detectable anti-HAV antibody compared with 37.1% with decompensated liver disease (P

A month after HAV booster doses had been administered, almost 100% of the compensated patients had seroconverted, as opposed to only 65.7% of the decompensated patients ("Immunogenicity of hepatitis ...