comparison of the accelerated and standard vaccination schedules against hepatitis b in healthcare workers

background: for healthcare workers, sometimes the conventional hepatitis-b virus (hbv) vaccination schedule might not provide seroconversion rapidly enough. the aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of conventional hbv vaccination with an accelerated schedule (days 0-1-21). normal 0 false false false en-us x-none ar-sa materials and methods: in this randomized clinical trial, 161 healthcare workers were divided into two vaccination groups; group a underwent the conventional schedule (0-1-6 months) and group b received the accelerated program (0-10-21 days) of hepatitis b virus vaccine. the anti-hbs antibody was determined 30 days after completion of the third vaccine injection in both groups by enzyme immunoassay (eia) (abbot, aux symsys). by using the fisher ’ s exact and wilcoxon tests, the results were analyzed. the protective level of anti-hbs was defined as titer ³ 10 miu / ml. results: the seroprotection rate, 30 days after vaccination, were similar in both groups a and b; 96.3% of the participants in group a and 92.6% in group b had anti-hbs antibody ³ 10 miu / ml. conclusion: our data indicated that compared to the classic hbs vaccination program an accelerated schedule could also be effective and achieve seroprotection more rapidly.