RESUMO
Vaccination with the major surface antigen of hepatitis B virus [HBsAg] induces anti-HBs antibody production and level of 10 IU/L is considered protective. It has been shown that the level of anti-HBs antibody does wane after vaccination. The aim of this study was to evaluate the persistence of anti-HBs antibodies in healthy Iranian children 10 years after primary vaccination. Blood samples were collected from 146 children, 10 years after completion of primary hepatitis B vaccination course at birth. The sera were tested for anti-HBs, antibody to hepatitis B core antigen [anti-HBc] and HBsAg by use of ELISA technique. At 10 years after primary vaccination, 70 [47.9%] children had protective levels of antibody [anti-HBs> 10 IU/L] with mean titer of 68.1 IU/ml. Moreover, 45 [30.82%] children were negative for anti-HBs antibody. Distribution of children according to anti-HBs concentration revealed that the proportion of subjects with antibody titer of 0-10 IU/L, 10-100 IU/L, 100-500 IU/L and 500-1000 IU/L was 52.1%, 24.6%, 20.5% and 2.7%, respectively. All children were negative for HBsAg, although anti-HBc was positive in 11 [7.5%] children. There was no difference in the seroprotection rates of males and females. The results of present study show that after 10 years after primary vaccination with recombinant HB vaccine, 47.9% of the children had protective levels of anti-HBs antibody. On basis of the HBsAg and anti-HBc results, it seems that effective immunological memory exists in children. Additional follow-up studies need to be conducted to determine the duration of protection
RESUMO
Decreased males' motivation for entering universities has caused a low male/female ratio in different university majors. In 2005-2006 academic year enrollment of female students in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences reached 83.14%. This tremendous gender imbalance may lead to the development of a mono-sex system for health service providers and will, affect the social health system. As females constitute the majority of students, in all medical sciences majors, in this study academic achievement of girls is compared to that-ofthe boys. This cross-sectional study was performed on 114 medical and 50 dentistry students who were enrolled at Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences in the spring of 2003. Grade-point average [GPA] was used as a marker for academic achievement. The scores were classified into 3 groups; A [17-20], B [14-16.99] and C [less than 13.99]. Data were analyzed by Chi-square test. This study indicated that not only girls constitute the majority of students in the Medicine and Dentistry majors, but also the academic achievement of girls was significantly higher than that of the boys. Among medical students only 2.7% of the boys had. A scores, while 18.2% of the girls had A scores. Furthermore, among dentistry students, none of the male students had A scores while 8% of the girls had an A score. It seems that the observed differences are not related to academic intelligence. These differences may have originated from the decreased motivation in male students for studying efficiently after the enrollment