How much hepatitis b vaccine

This is because the infection can persist for many years in children and can eventually lead to complications, such as scarring of the liver or liver cancer. The 6-in-1 vaccine offered to all babies when they are 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age includes a vaccine against hepatitis B. Babies at risk of developing hepatitis B infection from infected mothers are given extra doses of the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, 4 weeks and 1 year of age.

Although the risk of hepatitis B is low in the UK, children and adults in high-risk groups are also offered the vaccine.

People who are at risk of getting hepatitis B or developing serious complications from it should consider being vaccinated. All babies in the UK born on or after 1 August are given 3 doses of hepatitis B-containing vaccine as part of the NHS routine vaccination schedule.

Babies at high risk of developing hepatitis B infection from infected mothers are given extra doses of the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, 4 weeks and 1 year of age. If you think you're at risk and need the hepatitis B vaccine, ask your GP to vaccinate you, or visit any sexual health or genitourinary medicine GUM clinic.

Find local sexual health services. If your job places you at risk of hepatitis B infection, it's your employer's responsibility to arrange vaccination for you, rather than your GP. Contact your occupational health department. Full protection involves having 3 injections of the hepatitis B vaccine at the recommended intervals. Babies born to mothers with hepatitis B infection will be given 6 doses of hepatitis B-containing vaccine to ensure long-lasting protection. If you're a healthcare worker or you have kidney failure, you'll have a follow-up appointment to see if you have responded to the vaccine.

The hepatitis B vaccine is given as a series of 2, 3, or 4 shots injection in the upper arm or leg to provide long-lasting immunity. If the vaccination series is interrupted and the spacing between doses is longer than recommended, it is not necessary to start the series over or add more doses. The series should be completed from where it was interrupted. A two-dose series is available for teens ages 11 to The time between the first and second shot should be at least 4 months. Hepatitis B virus causes a liver infection that can lead to serious complications, including liver cancer.

It is common in people throughout the world, particularly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Pregnant women and other adults who do not have immunity and who have a high chance of exposure should be vaccinated. Healthy babies who weigh at least g 4. When a baby receives the first dose varies by each province and territory. Babies who are born early premature or who weigh less than g 4. When the other 2 hepatitis B shots are given to babies depends on whether the mother has hepatitis B and the recommended immunization schedule in the province or territory where the baby was born.

If you have questions about your baby's immunizations, talk with your doctor. Anyone 18 years of age or younger who has not previously received the hepatitis B vaccine should get it.

Children adopted from countries where HBV infection is common should be tested for hepatitis B and get shots if they are not immune. Adults who have not received the hepatitis B vaccine series should be immunized when they have an increased risk of exposure.

Job, travel, health condition, or lifestyle all may increase a person's risk of contracting hepatitis B. People who live or work where there is risk of exposure include:. People who have health conditions that put them at high risk for exposure or a severe infection include:.

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JULY JUNE MAY Just Released! APRIL Sexual contact can also expose people to infection. The virus is also present in low levels in saliva. Because the disease can be transmitted by casual contact, and because about three-quarters of a million to 2 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus many of whom don't know that they have it , it has been hard to control hepatitis B virus infections in the United States.

The original strategy started in the early s was to vaccinate only those at highest risk for example, healthcare workers, patients on dialysis, and intravenous drug users.

But because the disease can be transmitted to those who are not in high-risk groups, this vaccine strategy didn't work. The incidence of hepatitis B virus disease in the United States was unchanged 10 years after the vaccine was first used! For this reason, the vaccine strategy changed. Now all infants and young children are recommended to receive the hepatitis B vaccine and the incidence of hepatitis B virus infections in the United States is starting to decline.

Indeed, the new vaccine strategy has virtually eliminated the disease in children less than 19 years of age. If we stick with this strategy, we have a chance to finally eliminate this devastating disease within one or two generations. Large quantities of hepatitis B virus are present in the blood of people with hepatitis B; in fact, as many as one billion infectious viruses can be found in a milliliter one-fifth of a teaspoon of blood from an infected individual.

Therefore, hepatitis B virus is transmitted in the blood of infected individuals during activities that could result in exposure to blood, such as intravenous drug use, tattooing, or sex with people who are infected.

However, it is also possible to catch hepatitis B virus through more casual contact, such as sharing washcloths, toothbrushes or razors. In each of these cases, unseen amounts of blood can contain enough viral particles to cause infection. In addition, because many people who are infected don't know that they are infected, it is very hard to avoid the chance of getting infected with hepatitis B virus.

People are protected against hepatitis B virus infection by making an immune response to a protein that sits on the surface of the virus. When hepatitis B virus grows in the liver, an excess amount of this surface protein is made. The hepatitis B vaccine is made by taking the part of the virus that makes surface protein "surface protein gene" and putting it into yeast cells. The yeast cells then produce many copies of the protein that are subsequently used to make the vaccine.

When the surface protein is given to children in the vaccine, their immune systems make an immune response that provides protection against infection with the hepatitis B virus. The first hepatitis B vaccine was made in the s by taking blood from people infected with hepatitis B virus and separating or purifying the surface protein from the infectious virus.

Because blood was used, there was a risk of contaminating the vaccine with other viruses that might be found in blood, such as HIV. Although contamination with HIV was a theoretical risk of the early, blood-derived, hepatitis B vaccine, no one ever got HIV from the hepatitis B vaccine.

That is because the blood used to make vaccine was submitted to a series of chemical and treatments that inactivated any possible contaminating virus.

Today, there is no risk of contaminating the vaccine with other viruses because the surface protein is manufactured in the laboratory. There is one extremely rare, but serious, side effect.