ABSTRACT
A total of 250 dentists (53.6 percent men and 46.4 percent women), with a mean age of 35.1 ± 9.8 years, were submitted to serological tests for the diagnosis of hepatitis B (HB) - HBsAg, anti-HBs, anti-HBc, HBeAg, and anti-HBe - using a radioimmunoassay. One or more of these markers were detected in 78 individuals (31.2 percent) who were excluded from the group to be vaccinated. Of the 172 HB-susceptible individuals, 135 (78.5 percent) responded to the call and were intradermally injected with three 2 µg doses of the Belgian HB recombinant vaccine, applied at an interval of one month between the 1st and 2nd dose and of five months between the 2nd and 3rd dose. A new determination of HB markers carried out 50 days after the 3rd dose showed that 110 (81.5 percent) individuals had become anti-HBs positive (65.5 percent good responders and 34.5 percent poor responders). Mean serum anti-HBs titer of these 110 dentists was 42.4 U S/N, similar in both sexes. The adverse effects analyzed in 106 dentists were: (a) local: pain (12.3 percent), burning sensation (14.1 percent), pruritus (25.5 percent), erythema (28.3 percent), local heat (18.9 percent), and a hypochromic spot (32.1 percent); (b) systemic (4.7 percent): discomfort in two patients, and fever, anorexia, and asthenia in one patient each. Intradermal administration of a fourth 2 µg vaccine dose to 39 dentists (poor or non-responders) increased the total number of anti-HBs-positive individuals from 110 (81.5 percent) to 114 (84.4 percent), with the number of good responders increasing from 72 (65.5 percent) to 85 (74.6 percent). We conclude that the Belgian recombinant vaccine applied in the scheme used here induces a high rate of seroconversion and causes only mild and transitory adverse effects.