Hep B vaccine requirement.

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Specializes in Trauma.

Hi all!

I start my ABSN program in a little over two weeks and I had a question on the Hep B vaccine. Was this not a childhood vaccine we had? My daughter had it (almost a year old) so I’m wondering why we are required to begin the series? I just had my physical/timers/drug testing done and hep b is one of the titers they are checking as well so I’m just wondering the reasoning. Thanks for any info!

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Most likely it would depend on your age and what your school would have required. I'm not *that* old (even though some days I certainly feel old), and Hep B was never a childhood vaccine requirement. I didn't get it until nursing school.

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I'm Canadian and Hep B is a vaccine we get at about 11-13 years old in the province I grew up in. I go to school in the US, but with different countries having different ages for the vaccine, I can see where people could miss one window or another and I think the Hep B vaccine was only added to the US schedule in 1994 (though it was first recommended in 1989). So there are still many US citizens who wouldn't have Hep B yet.

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I recently had hep B titers done and they came back negative despite having had the series about 15 years ago. I asked one of the techs if this was common and he told me yes, the vaccine unfortunately doesn't confer long-lasting immunity for many people and its common to have to repeat the series. He told me he had the series done twice and still had negative titers... I assume this is why!

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Specializes in Trauma.

Thanks for the info! So I wait on my titer results before starting the series? If it’s positive I don’t need the series, correct?

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