Efficacy of hepatitis b vaccine in 13 and 17 years old school-children, investigation of hepatitis a and hepatitis c serologies

Viral hepatitis infections are a major public health problem all over the world and especially in developing countries.Therefore, protection against viral hepatitis B is very important.As is known, hepatitis B vaccine entered the routine child immunization program in 1998 in Turkey. In our study, immunization of hepatitis B vaccine was evaluated in students who born in 1999 and 2003 in Afyonkarahisar. Our study is remarkable in that it is a study in whichis determined effectiveness of the first vaccinations in Turkey. In addition, the seroprevalences of Hepatitis A and Hepatitis C infections were also determined. This study was performed with a cross-analytical method. The sample was the 803 students studying in Central Schools of Afyonkarahisar in 2016. Thequestionnaire forms including the 17 questions measuring socio-demographic characteristics, hepatitis B transmission routes and vaccine knowledge levels. Survey forms were given to volunteer students by hand and collected. After that, a tube venous blood was collected. HBsAg, anti-HBs, anti-HBc IgG, anti-HAV and anti-HCV levels were studied by CMIA (chemiluminescent microparticulate immunological) test method. Anti-HBs> 10 mIU was seropositive and Anti-HBs> 100mIU was considered as high seropositive. In statistical analyzes, descriptive statistics, chi-square test were used. Significance level was accepted as p <0.05.The data analysis was carried out with the SPSS 18.0 program. In this study, 56% (n= 454) female and 44% (n= 349) of the 803 students participated. Anti-Hbs positive (> 10 mIU/mL) was detected in 70.5% (321 female, 245 male) of the students participating in the study. The mean value of Anti HBs among the seropositive students was determined as 198,8 mIU/mL (206,2 mIU/mL in female, 189,2 mIU/mL in male). Anti-Hbs positivity was found to be 90.5% at birth in 1999; Anti-Hbs positivity was found at 51.6% in 2003 births. In our study, HbsAg positivity was 0.4% (n= 4) while anti-HBc IgG positivity was 0.2% (n= 2). Anti-HAV seropositivity was 9.2% in 13 year old school children and 24.9% in 17 years old school children. Anti-HCV seropositivity was 0.7% at 13 years; At the age of 17, it was 0.5%. As a result; The first year of hepatitis B vaccine immunization was higher than 5 years later. HAV infection decreased during five years. Afyonkarahisar was evaluated as a low endemic area for HCV infection.