Hepatitis B Vaccine May Be Linked to MS

Hepatitis B Vaccine May Be Linked to MS Sept. 13, 2004 --The hepatitis B vaccine series has been administered to more than 20 million people in the U.S. and more than 500 million people in the world. It is more than 95% effective in preventing an infection that kills millions annually. However anecdotal evidence has linked the vaccine to an increased risk for multiple sclerosis.

Now a new study in the Sept. 14 issue of the journal Neurology offers the some of the strongest evidence supporting the link.

In the study, researchers report that vaccination with the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine is associated with a threefold increased risk of multiple sclerosis.

They concluded that the benefits of the vaccine still appear to outweigh the risks, but added that the findings "challenge the idea that the relation between hepatitis B vaccination and the risk of MS is well understood."

"We aren't policy makers, but it is important to recognize that many lives are saved by this vaccine," researcher Susan Jick, DSc, tells WebMD. "We certainly aren't suggesting that people stop getting vaccinated. But this study raises important questions."

The actual cause of MS is still unknown but MS is believed to be an autoimmune disease in genetically susceptible persons. Reports of hepatitis B vaccination and MS were from anecdotal case reports, not scientifically controlled studies.

A Billion Doses

Approximately 350 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis B virus, and as many as 65 million will die from liver cancer or cirrhosis of the liver as a result. The hepatitis B vaccine has generally been considered one of the safest vaccines ever produced, and more than a billion doses have been given since was first made available in the early 1980s.

Reports in the mid-1990s pointing to a link between the vaccine and MS lead the French government to temporarily suspend the routine immunization of pre-adolescents in schools, but most clinical trials have not supported the association.

Two years ago an immunization safety committee guided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Institutes of Health reported that the clinical evidence "favors rejection of a causal relationship between hepatitis B vaccine and multiple sclerosis."