Study of the Immune Response to Hepatitis B Virus Vaccine among Healthy Vaccinated Students in Khartoum, Sudan Babbiker Mohammed Taher Gorish 1 , Marwa Almakki 2 , Sulafa Ahmed 2 , Safaa Mohammed 2 , Fatima Saleh 2 , Fairouz Mohammed 2 , Maysa Mohammed 2 and Shams Ibrahim 2 1 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Omdurman Islamic University, Sudan 2 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Academy of Health Science, Sudan * Corresponding author: Babbiker Mohammed Taher Gorish, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Omdurman Islamic University, Sudan, E-mail: qorish456@gmail.com Received date: February 28, 2018; Accepted date: March 03, 2018; Published date: March 10, 2018 Copyright: ©2018 Gorish BMT, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract The aim of this study was to describe the immune response to HBV vaccine among healthy, vaccinated Academy of Health Science students in Khartoum state. A total of eighty one samples (n=81) were obtained from healthy vaccinated students, the samples were involving 12 (14.2%) males and 69 (85.8%) female. The mean of Age (years), Weight (kg), TWBCs (cell/µl) and differential lymphocytes count (%) were 22.22 ± 1.1 year, 58.42 ± 12.5 kg, 5.8 ± 1.7 cell/µl and 38.6 ± 9% respectively. 2.5 ml blood sample was collected from each student in EDTA blood container. TWBCs and differential lymphocytes count were measured from whole blood by using Sysmex Haematological analyzer, and then the plasma was separated from whole blood by centrifugation at 3000 RPM for 5 min. All plasma samples were examined for the presence of anti-HBsAg using Enzyme Linked Immune Sorbent Assay (ELISA). The results showed that out of 81 blood samples investigated, 80 (98.77%) were positive for anti HBsAg while only one (1.23%) was negative. The mean of ELISA reading in the male was higher than female 2.7005 and 2.668 respectively, and there is insignificant effect of gender, weight, TWBCs and differential lymphocytes count in the immune response to HBV vaccine with p value 0.675, 0.070, 0.092 and 0.604 respectively. The study concluded that all most all students produced antibody immune response to HBV vaccine and there are variations in ELISA readings. Further studies with more sample size and by using more advanced technique (quantitative ELISA) should be done to clarify the results. Keywords: HBV; HBV vaccine; Antibody immune response; Healthy students Introduction Hepatitis is infammation of the liver which can be caused by several insulting agents including viruses, Hepatitis B virus infection is a major public health problem worldwide, roughly 30% of the world's population show serological evidence of current or past infection. Most HBV infections are acquired via horizontal transmission among adolescents and young adults, the virus is spread predominantly by percutaneous or mucosal exposure to infected blood and various body fuids including saliva, menstrual, vaginal and seminal fuids, which have all been implicated as vehicles of human transmission [1-3]. Chronic hepatitis B virus infection is a serious public health problem leading to cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and death. Over 750,000 people die of hepatitis B each year, and about 300,000 of these are due to liver cancer. Sudan is classifed among countries with high hepatitis B surface Ag (HBsAg) endemicity of more than (8%). Exposure to HBV infection ranges of (47%) to (78%) with a hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seroprevalence ranging from as low as (6.8%) in central Sudan to as high as (26%) in southern Sudan [4-6]. Hepatitis B infection can be prevented by HBV vaccine, vaccination against hepatitis B has been available since the beginning of the 1980s, the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine was introduced in 1986 and has gradually replaced the plasma-derived vaccine. Te active substance in recombinant hepatitis B vaccine is HBsAg that has been produced in yeast or mammalian cells into which the HBsAg gene has been inserted by using plasmid [7-9]. Vaccination is recommended to all newborns and high-risk groups of hepatitis B infection including Homosexually active men, persons at high risk of sexually transmitted HBV infection, injection drug user, household members living with HBV carrier patients, sexual partner of HBV carriers, patients of hemodialysis units, patients who receive clotting factor concentrates and persons at occupational risk of HBV infection [10-12]. Vaccine includes 20 μg of surface antigen for adults and 10 μg for children. Te vaccine should be given by intramuscular injection in anterolateral aspect of thighs of infants and children less than 2 years of age and in the deltoid muscle of older children, adolescents and adult, it is generally administered in three doses with the second dose given one month afer the frst dose and the third dose given sex months afer the frst dose [10,13]. Post-vaccination testing should be performed 1-2 months afer completion of the vaccine series. Anti-HBs response less than 10 IU/mL afer completion of the frst vaccine series is called 'non-responders'. Re-vaccination is recommended for non-responders. So administration of a single dose of vaccine followed by measurement of anti-HBs antibody response 1-3 months later [10,14]. Antibody tests should be considered in health care workers at high risk of infection or in the cases of hemodialysis patients [15]. Tis study was sought to describe the immune response to HBV vaccine among healthy, vaccinated students. J o u r n a l o f V a c c i n e s & V a c c i n a t i o n ISSN: 2157-7560 Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination Gorish et al., J Vaccines Vaccin 2018, 9:2 DOI: 10.4172/2157-7560.1000388 Research Open Access J Vaccines Vaccin, an open access journal ISSN:2157-7560 Volume 9 • Issue 2 • 1000388