POZ Community Forums
Main Forums => Living With HIV => Topic started by: brenner on April 13, 2011, 08:06:53 pm
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I had my Hep B Vaccine done about 5 years ago and I remember only doing 2 shots. I got my labs back, and was showing that i had a weak immunity to the virus. My doc wants to give me another dose of it. My question is, do i need to do the whole course , ie all 3 shots or just one? Im just a bit confused about it because i thought that once you were vaccinized, it was good for another 10 years. Any thoughts?
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Just a quick question for you in the know how.....Went to my doc and he told me that my Hep B immunity is under 2, which means that I could get infected. I had my shots done about 5 years ago, maybe earlier, but i only got 2 shots instead of 3. My question is, do i need to do the entire course (3 shots all over) or just get one booster shot? Just confused about the result. thanks.
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Brenner, we pozzies sometimes have a difficult time creating enough hep B antibodies to grant immunity. I would imagine your doctor would give you one shot then see if you respond satisfactorily. If you don't, then you may well need the whole three shot course again. Please ask your doctor what plan of action he intends taking with you.
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Hi Ann, thanks for that....he did tell me that we would have to do another hep b check...but i thought that once you get your shots, you are good for 10 years. Anyhoo... will be doing it some time next week.
my liver and kidney checks came out very good and my doc is happy about that. My new numbers will be done in 2 weeks from now, as he said that it was still too early to do a count after 2 weeks of therapy. makes sense to me....
thanks for the info honey.
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You're welcome, sweetie. ;)
Going by what you've told us so far, it sounds like you were probably already poz when you had your initial course of hep B vaccinations. If you were known to be poz, you probably would have been given the whole three shot course instead of only two and you definitely would have been checked afterwards to make sure you had a good response. Do you remember if your levels were checked after your second shot? I'm guessing it was just assumed that you had a good response and gained immunity.
I'm glad to hear your liver and kidney functions are good. They're important. It sounds like your doctor has all bases covered and that's good news too. Hang in there, and good luck with the hep B vaccinations.
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I had my Hep B Vaccine done about 5 years ago and I remember only doing 2 shots. I got my labs back, and was showing that i had a weak immunity to the virus. My doc wants to give me another dose of it. My question is, do i need to do the whole course , ie all 3 shots or just one? Im just a bit confused about it because i thought that once you were vaccinized, it was good for another 10 years. Any thoughts?
If your HBV surface antibody general mean titre (GMT) has gone below 10 then you should receive a booster. You don't need the full course all over again, one shot is generally sufficient.
That said HIV positive people tend to need boosters more frequently than negative people. And it may be that you need more than one booster to regain proper immunity. Your doctor will measure your GMT at a set point after the injection and if another shot is needed then you'll get it.
But provided your GMT is greater than 10 you're immune.
MtD
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Brenner, I just realised that Andy moved your very similar hep B thread from the Spanish Living forum into this Living forum yesterday, so I merged the two threads so you can have all the responses in the same place.
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After 3 shots, I did not respond at all to this vaccine. :-\
There is a better vaccination scheme for HIV+ people but
doctors here just don't care.
I will give it a try (will go to 4 different vaccination ''spots'' at the same time)
It's here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19995540
High rates of serological response to a modified hepatitis B vaccination schedule in HIV-infected adults subjects.
Potsch DV, Oliveira ML, Ginuíno C, Miguel JC, Oliveira SA, Silva EF, Moreira RB, Cruz GV, Oliveira AL, Camacho LA, Barroso PF.
Adult Vaccination Center, School of Medicine, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. dfvp@hucff.ufrj.br
Abstract
We evaluated a modified HBV regimen in a cohort of HIV-infected subjects in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. HIV-infected subjects with no serologic evidences of previous hepatitis B infection were immunized with 4 doses (40 microg each) of recombinant hepatitis B vaccine given at 0, 1, 2 and 6 months. Blood samples were collected 1 month after the last dose and anti-HBs titers were measured. A protective antibody response was defined as an anti-HBs titer >or=10 mIU/mL. Forty-seven subjects (30 women, 17 men; mean age was 36 years, ranging from 21 to 58 years) were included in the final analysis. Median baseline CD4+ lymphocyte count was 402 cells/mm(3) and 33 subjects (70%) had an HIV viral load below 80 copies/mL. A protective antibody response was observed in 42 (89%) subjects. Thirty-seven (78%) and 28 (60%) patients developed anti-HBs titers higher than 100 mIU/mL and 1000 mIU/mL, respectively. 1 out of 5 non-responders (20%) had an HIV viral load below the detection limit, in contrast with 32 (76%) of those with an adequate serologic response (p=0.02). These findings suggest that 4-double dose alternative schedule may be considered to overcome the lower seroconversion rates observed with the standard regimens in HIV-infected subjects.
Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
So, it's 0,1,2, 6
with 2 doses each time.
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the value i got for hep b was 2, so i just got the shot yesterday and in 4 weeks, we will do another test to see how its working...if not, then i will do the whole course. thanks everyone for your input. helped a lot.
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My antibodies appeared, it took them 2 years :o. (550 of them
and apparently everything over 200 is ''good response'').
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how do all these numbers play out if you already had hep b and cleared it? arent you immune to hep b once you had it and cleared it?
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Yes, in this case, developed antibodies confer lifelong immunity. :)
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i also had to do a second 3 shots, the first one didn't take and this was way before i was diagnosed with HIV, so it didn't have anything to do with that.
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ha thanks elf! i guess one good thing came out having that dreadful illness.