Anti-HBAg immunoglobulin after inoculation injuries

A Medical Research Council study was begun in England and Wales in September 1973 to determine the incidence of hepatitis B infection among persons who reported certain specified accidents with material containing hepatitis B antigen and who were given anti-hepatitis B immunoglobulin within 14 days. It was not considered justifiable to include a control group. Anti-HBAg immunoglobulin was separated by cold ethanol fractionation from plasma in which hepatitis B antibody was detected by counterimmunoelectrophoresis. The plasma pools were examined for the presence of HBAg bu immune electron-microscopy and radioimmunoassay. The aimmunoglobulin was prepared as a 5 g per 100 ml solution and the titre of anti-HBAg measured by CIEP, RPH, and RIA. The usual dose was 500 mg-intramuscularly. The study includes a year's follow-up of each participant. Serum samples usually taken at four weekly intervals for six months, then at nine months and one year are tested, by routine methods, for abnormalities of liver function and for HBAg and anti-HGAg. Specimens are stored for further tests at the end of the study. In the first year of study 110 persons were enrolled: of these, 100 participants continued to be followed up, about half of them for more than six months.