A newer vaccine against hepatitis B virus was clearly superior to an older vaccine type in inducing a protective antibody response among people living with HIV who didn’t respond to prior vaccination, according to the results of an international study led by Dr. Kristen Marks, an associate professor of medicine and infectious diseases specialist in the division of Infectious Diseases in the Weill Department of Medicine.
The study, reported Dec. 1 in JAMA, showed that hepatitis B vaccine with a cytosine phosphoguanine adjuvant, known as HepB-CpG, (trade name Heplisav-B) induced protective levels of antibodies in up to 99.4% of the subjects who received it. Such protection was seen in only 80.6% of subjects who received hepatitis B vaccine with an aluminum hydroxide adjuvant, known as HepB-alum, (trade name Engerix-B).
“These results suggest a potential path forward for the large number of people living with HIV who can’t get protection from older hepatitis B vaccines,” said study corresponding author Dr. Marks.
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