Inactivated hepatitis A vaccine: immunogenicity, efficacy, safety and review of official recommendations for use

Abstract

There is 10 years of marketing experience with the hepatitis A vaccine Havrix. It is highly immunogenic, provides lasting protection in healthy individuals and generates protective levels of antibodies in patients with chronic liver disease or impaired immunity. Postmarketing surveillance data have confirmed the outstanding safety profile of the vaccine. The timing of the booster dose is not critical to effectiveness, which has advantages for the protection of travelers to regions of high endemicity. The vaccine is effective in curbing outbreaks of hepatitis A and also when administered postexposure, due to rapid seroconversion and the long incubation period of the disease. In intermediate endemic regions, an epidemiological shift in hepatitis A infection has driven the development of universal preventive strategies to be added to the targeting of at-risk groups. Existing official recommendations and future directions for vaccine use are reviewed.

Hepatitis A: the costs and benefits of the disease prevention by vaccine, Paraná, Brazil

“…Vaccination should be recommended to children aged 12 months or over. For children younger than 12 months, the seroconversion is impaired due to the presence of maternal antibodies in their system [12]. There are 177,635 children younger than 12 months in Paraná.…”

“…The seroconversion is fast, approximately 12 days (the incubation of the hepatitis A virus lasts around 28 days), so the vaccine can be administered after a short period of exposure to the virus [11]. Adults aged between 20 and 39 years have the fastest rate of seroconversion [12]. The age of vaccination also influences the seroconversion rate.…”

“…In the United Kingdom, out of a total of 1 million vaccinated people, 548 reported suffering from mild symptoms such as fatigue, fever and localized cutaneous rash. In the USA, 428 out of 6 million vaccinated individuals reported mild adverse effects [12].…”

“…-Hepatitis A is responsible for 10 to 20% of all liver failure cases in the United Kingdom. -Hepatitis A is responsible for 20% of all liver transplants in Argentina [12]. The Brazilian population is at a high risk of contracting the disease due to the deficient or total lack of sanitary systems in some of the regions of the country.…”

Review of 10 years of marketing experience with Chinese domestic inactivated hepatitis A vaccine Healive®

“…Jun-Yu wu, 1, † Yan Liu, 1, † Jiang-Ting Chen, 1 Ming Xia 2 and Xiao-Mei Zhang 3, cost-effectiveness studies and current recommendation for vaccination. Information on safety was obtained from the safety monitoring system of Sinovac Biotech through reporting by healthcare professionals.…”