BMJ 1995;311:1500 (2 December)

Letters

Hepatitis B vaccination policy in drug treatment services

EDITOR,--The World Health Organisation encourages universal vaccination against hepatitis B in settings in which the prevalence is low1; current British policy recommends selective vaccination.2 We present information about the delivery of vaccine to the target group with the highest prevalence and risk of infection, injecting drug misusers.3

Drug clinics were identified from the 1992 directory of the standing conference on drug abuse, updates, and regional drugs databases and were contacted in November 1993. Characteristics of new clients were provided by the clinics or collected from regional drugs databases. Self help groups, helplines, private nursing homes, and clinics that dealt only with minor tranquillisers were excluded.

Sixty of the 500 clinics had closed, were satellite clinics, or were ineligible. Three hundred and forty nine (80%) of the 440 remaining clinics responded to the questionnaire; 244 provided data on new clients. Only 22 NHS clinics and 10 non-NHS services (which generally . . . [Full text of this article]


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This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Pallecaros, A., Robinson, A. (1996). Hepatitis B vaccination. BMJ 312: 777b-777 [Full text]  
  • Ford, C. (1996). All GPs in Brent and Harrow offer hepatitis B vaccination to drug users. BMJ 312: 777c-778 [Full text]  
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