The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that globally, about 2 billion people have been infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV).
WHO recommends that all countries should have universal infant or adolescent hepatitis B vaccination integrated into their national immunization programs by 1997. By the end of 2004, 168 countries implemented some portion of the suggested program.
Alessandro Remo Zanetti (Institute of Virology Faculty of Medicine, Milan, Italy) and colleagues concluded that infant and adolescent immune systems can recall responding to hepatitis B more than 10 years after immunization.
Professor Zanetti concludes in The Lancer, "In light of our findings, the use of routine booster doses of hepatitis B vaccine does not seem necessary to maintain long-term protection in immunocompetent individuals vaccinated as infants and teenagers."
