TUESDAY, Dec. 26, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- More than one-third of adult U.S. HIV patients miss opportunities to initiate hepatitis B vaccination, according to a study published online Dec. 26 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
John Weiser, M.D., M.P.H., from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues estimated the prevalence of hepatitis B vaccination among 18,089 adults receiving HIV medical care and participating in the Medical Monitoring Project (2009 to 2012).
The researchers found that at the beginning of the surveillance period, 44.2 percent of U.S. HIV patients were candidates to initiate vaccination versus 36.7 percent at the end of the surveillance period. However, at the end of the surveillance period, only 9.6 percent of the candidates were vaccinated, while 7.5 percent had no documented vaccination but had documented infection or immunity and 82.9 percent remained candidates for vaccination. Vaccination was higher among patients at facilities funded by the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP), with 12.5 percent vaccinated during the study period versus 3.7 percent at facilities not funded by RWHAP.
"Meeting goals for hepatitis B elimination will require increased vaccination of HIV patients in all practice settings, particularly at facilities not funded by RWHAP," the authors write.
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