Hepatitis B Vaccine... Needing Answers

[AmyL219]

I am a nursing student and I posted this in the student forum but thought I would post it here to see if others had some input on this as well :)

I am sure for the most of you have had your 3 step Hep. B vaccine and then after the third one about a month later you go and get your blood drawn and the see if your body as made the antibodies?!? Well, I got home from school today and I had a message on the machine from my doctor. She said that my test was negative which means that my body thinks I have never had Hep. B, so my body did not make the antibodies it was suppose to of made.

What do I do now? Anyone else have this problem or know what I should do? When then checked for Rubella my body had made the antibodies.

She said I should check with my school about what I should do, since they have requirements. I will but I really wanted this for my own protection from patients who have Hep. B.... I am sure you understand! You never know what your patients in clinicals might have sometimes.

If any of you can answer this I would greatly appreciate any light you could shine on this. I will call the Dr. back tomorrow but I am curious about things now.

Thanks!!

Amy L

[Mellissa]

I had the hep series 3 yrs ago and just found out that I am still neg. I had to have the booster and will be re checked for my new job. I was told that if I am still neg they will repeat the series once. 3% of people never convert.

[oramar]

The very first Hepatitus vacine was called Hepavax. I had it in 1983. My understanding is that your titer went high and stayed high on that vacine. It is to bad they do not offer it to people having this no response problem. I understand also that there were more adverse reactions to Hepavax so that is why they switched to the newer vacine. An infection control nurse once told me that the actual disease was very rare in anyone who had the new vacine even if they did not have antibodies.