How long is the hepatitis b immunization protects individuals?
Someone protect with hepatitis B if level antibody still high (HbsAb) so if you have vaccine after getting third vaccine you must check your HbsAg to see how level do you have. There are 3 subtypes of hepatitis B (alfa, delta, gamma) so if your husband infect with Hep B subtype alfa and your vaccine level antibody is still high but you get hep B, I suspicious your vaccine is not match with your husband subtype hep B. There’s vaccine which covered all subtypes, it’s call Pre-S Vaccine. Every 3 years we must check our antibody level if there’s slowing down we can get booster to increase the level of antibody. For you don’t worry, now technologie can handle your problem, if you have an expert hepatologist to pass your “Golden window period” well.
From the CDC website: How long does hepatitis B vaccine protect you? Recent studies indicate that immunologic memory remains intact for at least 23 years and confers protection against clinical illness and chronic HBV infection, even though anti-HBs levels might become low or decline below detectable levels. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepat… Some think that if you are immunized and after a period of time your immunization levels fall below a certain point, your immune system will have enough of a “memory” and be able to fight off the infection. Most people (80%) who are exposed to Hep B (HBV) are able to fight it off through their own immune system. The rest go on to have chronic HBV. Hope this info helps; best wishes.
