Klinische Infektionskrankheiten: Open Access

Evaluation of Immune Response to Hepatitis B Vaccine in Laboratory Workers, Khartoum, Sudan

Abstract

Mutaz A Elsir, Ibrahim A Almoshraf , Mustafa A Mustafa , Abdel Rahim M El Hussein , Isam M Elkhidir and Khalid A Enan

This study was conducted to evaluate the responsiveness to hepatitis B virus vaccine in adult healthy laboratory workers in the Faculty of Medical Laboratories Sciences at Al Neelain University, Khartoum, Sudan. The study was conducted at Al Neelain University, during the period from April to June 2014. Sixty one blood samples were collected from healthy adult laboratory workers who received 3 doses of recombinant HBV vaccine. Serum samples were obtained by centrifugation and tested using ELISA to quantify the level of hepatitis B surface antibody in order to detect the responders and non-responders. DNA was extracted from plasma samples collected from the same patients and subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect the presence of Interferon gamma (IFN-γ) A&T alleles in both responders and non-responders.

Out of 61 laboratory workers 54 (88.5%) were found responders and 7 (11.5%) were non-responders to hepatitis B vaccine, with higher frequency of non-responsiveness among the males, there was no association between the responsiveness and age.

All responders and 85% of non-responders were positive for IFN-γ A alleles, while 28.5% of responders and 42.8% of non-responders were positive for IFN-γ T alleles. Responsiveness to hepatitis B surface antigen vaccine is affected by gender (higher in females than males) but not age or the presence of A&T allele of interferon gamma gene.