Comparison of seroconversion rates between low-dose intradermal and recommended dose intramuscular hepatitis B vaccination in children

Introduction Massive hepatitis B vaccination is expensive. Re-sults of studies showed that reduced dosage given intradermallyto adults and intramuscularly to children were able to induceseroconversion.Objective To compare the anti-HBs seroconversion (seropositiveand seroprotective) rates between intradermal low-dose of 2 mg(ID-2) and intramuscular recommended dose of 10 mg (IM-10)vaccination against hepatitis B.Methods In a randomized clinical trial, using the hepatitis B plasmavaccine, elementary school children in Tanjung Enim subdistrict,80-168 months of age, were randomly assigned to be given threedoses of either the ID-2 (n=59) or IM-10 (n=64) vaccinations atone month intervals. Seropositive (anti HBs titer >2.1 mIU/l) andseroprotective (anti HBs >10 mIU/l) rates as well as the seroposi-tive and seroprotective geometric mean antibody titers (GMTs) werecompared one month after each inoculation. A p value of 0.1)Conclusion Reduced doses of the hepatitis B vaccine given in-tradermally may offer protection against hepatitis B, thus it may beuseful for mass vaccination programs