BEIJING, Dec 31: Neonatal HBV vaccination reduces the risk of liver cancer and other liver diseases in young adults, according to a new Chinese study.
The findings are based on long-term outcomes of a randomised controlled trial of neonatal HBV (hepatitis B virus) vaccination conducted between 1983 and 1990 in Qidong County, a rural area in China with a high incidence of HBV-related primary liver cancer (PLC) and other diseases.
“Neonatal HBV vaccination significantly decreased HBsAg seroprevalence in childhood through young adulthood and subsequently reduced the risk of PLC and other liver diseases in young adults,” said Chunfeng Qu from the Cancer Institute and Hospital at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
In the study, 41 rural towns (including a total of 77,658 newborns over the study period) were randomised to the intervention (HBV vaccination for all newborns) or control (no vaccination) groups.
Two-thirds of the control group participants received a catch-up vaccination at age 10-14 years.
By collecting data on new cases of liver diseases over 30 years from a population-based tumour registry, the researchers estimated that the protective efficacy of vaccination was 84 per cent for primary liver cancer (vaccination reduced the incidence of liver cancer by 84 per cent), 70 per cent for death from liver diseases, and 69 per cent for the incidence of infant fulminant hepatitis.
Based on survey data collected in 1996-2000 and 2008-2012 on HBsAg seroprevalence, an indicator of current HBV infection, researchers concluded that the efficacy of the catch-up vaccination on HBsAg seroprevalence in early adulthood was weak compared to neonatal vaccination (21 per cent versus 72 per cent).
“Our results also suggest that an adolescence booster should be considered in people who were born to HBsAg-positive mothers and completed HBV neonatal vaccination series,” researchers said.
The study was published in the journal PLOS Medicine. (PTI)
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