Family Updates

Hepatitis in the News

HONG KONG, February 1999:

    A booster dose has been found unnecessary following hepatitis B vaccination, which

appears to protect against HBV for at least 12 years. As of today, there are no official

national guidelines for booster doses for HBV vaccination, though Hong Kong has had

a regulation for hepatitis B vaccination at birth has been in effect in since 1988.
Physicians have debated whether or not a booster dose 5 years after the first vaccination

is necessary to maintain immunogenicity.

    ''We found that the protection against HBV was nearly complete even though antibody

levels dropped to low or undetectable levels,'' Dr Yuen said.

 
    A study revealed in 65 children, all living with relatives defined as chronic carriers of

HBV, had antibody levels to hepatitis B surface antigen which increased  periodically,

indicating a memory T-cell response. Antibody levels were found to rise 12 years after

vaccination without the need for a revaccination.   None of these studied subjects vaccinated

against HBV have become chronic carriers since.
The study is scheduled for publication in Hepatology in March 1999.

WESTPORT, October 1998

    In Westport, CA, results  from a survey conducted by the California Department

of Corrections have revealed that 47.9% of the state's incoming female prison inmates

are infected with hepatitis B and 54.5% are infected with hepatitis C. Male inmates,

on the other hand, exhibit 32.1% infected with hepatitis B and 39.4% infected
with hepatitis C.

    Survey results are being published by the American Liver Foundation. 
Hypotheses as to why so many female inmates are infected are as follows:
sharing of contaminated needles, body piercing and tattoos, and
unprotected sex with multiple partners.

LAVAL, QC and MISSISSAUGA, ON, November 1998

    Glaxo Wellcome Inc. and BioChem Pharma Inc. recently announced that

Heptovir (TM) otherwise known as lamivudine, was approved by the Therapeutic

Products Program of Health in Canada as the first oral anti-viral medication for

the treatment of chronic hepatitis B.

    "Heptovir helps control disease progression by allowing many patients
to seroconvert, which means the virus stops replicating and immunity
is achieved,'' said Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, an infectious disease specialist and
professor of medicine at the University of Alberta who first showed
lamivudine to be active against hepatitis B. ``Patients taking Heptovir
have the added benefit of improvements in liver disease, regardless of
whether they develop immunity to the virus.''

See full article http://www.hepnet.com/hepb/news120498.html

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