Short-term response to a booster dose of hepatitis B vaccine in anti-HBs negative adolescents who had received primary vaccination 16 years ago

We conducted a revaccination study to investigate the short-term response to booster hepatitis B (HB) vaccination in seronegative adolescents who had received primary infantile HB vaccination. A booster dose of recombinant HB vaccine was administered to 395 adolescents 15–18 years of age whose serum titers of antibody against hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) (anti-HBs) were <10 mIU/mL. Seventy-seven percent of the booster recipients converted to anti-HBs seropositivity (postbooster titers ≥ 10 mIU/mL). As compared with adolescents who had undetectable prebooster anti-HBs titers (<0.1 mIU/mL), the seropositive rates and geometric mean titers (GMTs) of 2-month and 1-year postbooster were significantly higher for those of prebooster titers of 0.1–0.9 and 1.0–9.9 mIU/mL (all p < 0.0001). Postbooster titers declined significantly more rapidly for those with undetectable prebooster anti-HBs titers than for those with prebooster titers of 0.1–0.9 and 1.0–9.9 mIU/mL. Our observations indicate that a booster dose of HB vaccine maybe unable to induce sufficient immunological response in adolescents who had undetectable residual anti-HBs titers.