Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B is now recognised as the most common disease in the world that can be prevented by vaccination. Hepatitis B is a serious illness, causing many deaths from chronic liver failure and liver cancer.
Who should be vaccinated?
There is much debate about who should have hepatitis B vaccination. The virus which causes the illness is passed on by contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. This means that some people, for example hospital workers and those working in blood transfusion centres, are at higher risk. People who inject themselves with drugs and have multiple sexual partners are also more prone to hepatitis B. So, too, are family members of people with the virus. Vaccination is strongly recommended for all these ‘high-risk’ groups.
Recommendations
Many experts recommend widespread vaccination for the whole community, starting with newborn babies. Teenagers and young adults, perhaps because of their lifestyles, are thought to be a group that particularly needs the protection of hepatitis B vaccine. So, the Australian Standard Vaccination Schedule recommends vaccination for all children at birth, followed by 3 doses at 2, 4 and 6 or 12 months, with a catch-up dose at 10 to 13 years for those children who have missed being vaccinated.
For adults and children who have not been vaccinated as part of the schedule, a simple course of 3 injections, the second and third given one and 6 months after the first, will give protection for several years. The vaccine is readily available and relatively inexpensive.
If you are concerned about the risks of hepatitis B for you or your children talk to your doctor.
Last Reviewed: 16 October 2003
