<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Hello group.  Recently there was a medical abstract posted about the risk
that celiacs might not "respond" to the hepatitiis B vacine....in other
words, you could get vacinated, but not be protected against the disease.
This raised my anxiety a bit, and i consulted with my sister who is a
pediatrician.  I copy her response to me, in case anyone else was concerned:


This is concerning, but it is also important to realize that clinical
resistance to disease does not correlate in a linear fashion with antibody

titers. They found this out in the original studies when trying to figure
out how long the vaccine would last and if boosters would be needed. They

found that antibody titers did decline over time, but that the subjects
still seemed to be resistant to clinical disease, and therefore they did not

end up recommending boosters for healthy subjects. In addition, this study
really only applies to celiacs who have this

particular genotype.

Additionally, the study does not really address what to DO about the low
antibody titer in Celiac patients. If the low antibody titer is, in

celiacs, also related to low clinical resistance to disease, what is to be
done? From the abstract, it does not sound like increased vaccine doses

would be expected to increase immune response in the "non-responders".
Therefore, the "non-responders" would need to rely on the same methods of

disease prevention that were used 10 years ago, namely don't have
unprotected sex, don't share dirty needles when you are shooting up with

your buddies, and don't be born to a Mom with Hepatitis B. Hopefully, your
kids will be following these precautions whether or not they have good

resistance to Hepatitis B, since these activities also put you at risk for
Hepatitis C, for which there is no vaccine. The blood supply is currently

tested for Hepatitis B and cases of transfusion related illness are rare-to
vanishing for Hepatitis B.



take care, Lynn

*Support summarization of posts, reply to the SENDER not the CELIAC List*