HBV Vaccination program for regular blood donors

HBV is one of most important viral disease that could be transmitted via contaminated blood products. The world health organization has set a goal to eliminate viral hepatitis due 2030, and Iran also is committed to join the control program. Despite HCV and HIV, the main threat for HBV is not just because of window period of recent infection, but OBI also play’s a non-negligible role. Safety measures due to HBV risk reduction in the field of TTI could be named as low risk blood donor recruitment, selection and retention, combined to screening tests by wide variation in different part of the world. On the other hand, HBV is a preventable viral disease, that could be controlled by vaccination and a safe and effective recombinant vaccine was introduced. HBV vaccination has been implicated in EPI since 1992 in Iran. Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization (IBTO) has set a goal to move toward zero risk in conjunction to the Ministry of Health (MOH) elimination program. Thus a pilot study has run in 5 provinces and the adherence rate was investigated. Routine schedule was applied (0, 1, 6 month) and about 90% consistency in vaccine injection was detected (first and second dose). Now IBTO estimated about 600000 regular blood donors would be vaccinated against HBV and in cooperation with Center of Diseases Control of MOH the preparation and logistic was made. We hope that this program contribute to remarkable achievements on the public safety as well as blood safety. Previous study which was enrolled in young regular donors of Sistan and Baluchistan Iran, by accelerated schedule 0, 1, 2 month vaccination, showed about 80% adherence rate and near-fully protective HBsAb production in response.