Hepatitis B Vaccine Fails in Half of all Celiac Patients: Is it Time to Re-evaluate Current Immunization Strategies?

Celiac.com 09/21/2009 - Failure of the hepatitis B vaccine in people with celiac disease is common. In fact, vaccine failure occurs in about 50% of all attempts to vaccinate people with celiac disease against hepatitis B. Research shows that age at celiac diagnosis and other factors can influence response rates.

The August 12 issue of the medical journal Vaccine features a timely article on failure of the hepatitis B vaccine in people with celiac disease, which asks the very sensible question of whether it is time to reevaluate our current vaccine procedures.

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One of the most important signs of non-responsiveness to the hepatitis B vaccine is a genetic marker called human leukocyte antigen (HLA) phenotype DQ2. It's interesting that people with celiac disease often carry these same genetic markers, and that fact is at the center of one hypothesis about why celiac patients are less able to respond to the hepatitis B vaccine.

A team of researchers recently set out to assess responsiveness rates to the hepatitis B vaccine among patients with celiac disease. The team was made up of S. Leonardi, M. Spina, L. Spicuzza, N. Rotolo, and M. La Rosa of the Broncho-Pneumology & Cystic Fibrosis Unit of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Catania, in Catania, Italy.

The team describes the results of a retrospective study on celiac patients vaccinated with three intramuscular injections of recombinant hepatitis B vaccine (Engerix in doses of 10mug at 3, 5 and 11 months of age.

Their results showed that half of the celiac disease patients (50%) failed to respond to the vaccine course, and that those who did best were less than 18 months of age at the time of diagnosis for celiac disease; that group showed a significantly higher response rate to the vaccine.

The study confirms that celiac patients have a far higher failure rate for hepatitis B vaccination than healthy control subjects. These results strengthen the call to re-evaluate current hepatitis B vaccine strategies for patients with celiac disease and to assess whether to recommend a course of re-vaccination.

Source: Open Original Shared Link.