Her recent review of more than 6,000 respondents to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey examined factors affecting hepatitis vaccination rates (Curr. Med. Res. Opin. 2006;22:2489–96). Among those with high-risk behaviors, being single, male, and uninsured had significant negative associations with hepatitis vaccination. “The people who need it most are the ones who don't have it,” said Dr. Chen.
Dr. Keeffe agreed. “These are hard populations to penetrate and elicit compliance from. Doctors who work in these environments, such as STD clinics or inner cities with large indigent populations, need to try and increase the delivery of vaccine to these patients.”
But even if new hepatitis infections become a relic of the past, Dr. Wasley said, physicians will be dealing with the existing chronic infections for years and years to come. “We can't forget that there are more than 3 million people in this country who have chronic hepatitis, and that is an enormous health care burden.”
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