Study of the Immune Response to Hepatitis B Virus Vaccine among Healthy Vaccinated Students in Khartoum, Sudan

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.