Re: [Gnumed-devel] one more vaccinations detail

[E Dodd]

On Friday 10 September 2004 21:09, Karsten Hilbert wrote:

> I was referring to, say, this:
>
> - HepAB base immunization requires 3 shots in adults
> - someone was given 2 out of 3 in due course
>
> Are those two injections still valid when the patient comes
> back for the 3rd shot after:
>
> - 1 year (yes)
> - 3 years (probably)
> - 5 years (?)
> - 10 years (probably not)
> - 25 years (well ?)
>
> What about if that patient only had 1 out of the 3 shots in
> the first place ?
>
Hep B isn't the best example for this, as the memory for this is permanent 
regardless of the time involved (humoral?)
I recall that 50% of persons are immune after one shot; about 90% after two 
shots and 95% have immunity after three shots.
While the detectable HepB SAb (surface antibody) declines with time, the 
person's humoral immunity doesn't.
Tetanus is now believed to be three shots any time provides basic immunity
but the time course involved here could be important.
Liz

> This is what we don't cover yet. The docs I found all say that
> "all shots are valid". It seems obvious, though, that after a
> sufficiently long period of time incomplete base immunizations
> are likely to be void - or aren't they ?
>
> Karsten

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