Journal of Vaccine Research 2024, Vol.14, No.6, 278-286 http://medscipublisher.com/index.php/jvr 278 Systematic Review Open Access Long-Term Immunity Post Hepatitis B Vaccination: A Systematic Review WeiminSun Sinovac (Dalian) Vaccine Technology Co., Ltd., Dalian, 116620, Liaoning, China Corresponding author email: weimin@sinovac.com Journal of Vaccine Research, 2024, Vol.14, No.6 doi: 10.5376/jvr.2024.14.0026 Received: 10 Sep., 2024 Accepted: 25 Oct, 2024 Published: 10 Nov., 2024 Copyright © 2024 Sun, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited Preferred citation for this article: Sun W.M., 2024, Long-term immunity post hepatitis b vaccination: A systematic review, Journal of Vaccine Research, 14(6): 278-286 (doi: 10.5376/jvr.2024.14.0026) Abstract This study talks about how long the hepatitis B vaccine can protect people. It explains how the immune system keeps working after vaccination and why this is important for fighting HBV around the world. The results show that the vaccine makes the body produce antibodies and immune cells, giving strong and lasting protection. Over time, the amount of antibodies may go down, but most healthy people can still fight off the virus because their immune system remembers it. However, not everyone is the same. People with weaker immune systems and people living in places with less vaccine coverage may not stay protected as well. The study also looks at whether people need booster shots and how well the current vaccines work against new virus strains. It checks how different things, like vaccination schedules, age, and health problems, change how well the vaccine works. Because of global vaccination programs, there are now fewer HBV infections and liver disease cases. The study says we should keep making vaccination plans better, do more health checks, and create new vaccines to help get rid of HBV for good. Keywords Hepatitis B vaccine; Long-term immunity; Immune memory; Booster dose; Vaccine escape 1 Introduction Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a serious health problem all over the world. It causes both short-term and long-term liver problems. Many people get sick or die because of it. Chronic HBV infection is even worse. It can cause liver scars (cirrhosis) and liver cancer (HCC), leading to more than 800 000 deaths every year (Flores et al., 2022). HBV is one of the main causes of long-term liver disease. In 2022, about 296 million people around the world were living with it. This puts a big strain on healthcare systems and the economy (Flores et al., 2022). The highest rates are in places like Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Western Pacific. In these areas, more than 8% of people have HBV. Most infections happen when the virus passes from mothers to babies or spreads among young children, causing health problems that last a lifetime. Even with the progress made, there were still about 6.3 million kids under five living with HBV in 2019 (Wang et al., 2023). This shows that more work is still needed. The HBV vaccine has helped a lot around the world. It has lowered infection rates in kids and teens. But not all places have good vaccine coverage. For example, only 42% of babies globally get the first dose at birth, which is very important to stop the virus from passing from mother to child (Flores et al., 2022). Poor countries have an even harder time because healthcare services are not as good, and vaccines can be expensive (Chen et al., 2015). Making the HBV vaccine was a big success for public health. Since the 1980s, the recombinant HBV vaccines have been very safe and over 95% effective at preventing chronic infection (Gomes et al., 2019). Now, 190 countries vaccinate babies. This has caused a big drop in HBV cases among children. In Taiwan, where the vaccine was used early, chronic HBV in kids dropped by 90%, and childhood liver cancer cases fell a lot within 20 years (Kao, 2015). Still, there are challenges. Vaccine protection can weaken over time, especially for people who got their shots as babies. Experts are still studying if adults need booster shots to stay safe. Also, new types of HBV that the vaccine might not fully cover, and gaps in vaccine access between countries, show we must keep watching and researching.
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