Hepatitis B virus infection in hemodialysis populations: progress toward prevention

Hemodialysis patients are at increased risk of acquiring hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Administration of the standard HBV vaccine is suboptimal as a means of prevention because of an impaired seroconversion response in individuals with chronic kidney disease. Surquin and colleagues describe a novel vaccine adjuvant system that increases speed of seroconversion and duration of seroprotection compared with older vaccine formulations. However, its ability to improve overall seroconversion response remains unproven.