The protective antibody appears to persist for eleven years or more. Booster doses of vaccine are not routinely recommended. The risk of health care workers contracting HBV infection depends on how often they are exposed to blood or blood products through percutaneous and permucosal exposures. Any health care or public safety worker may be at risk for HBV exposure, depending on the tasks performed. If those tasks involve contact with blood or blood contaminated body fluids, then such workers should be vaccinated.
Risk is often highest during training periods.
Therefore, it is recommended that vaccination be completed during training in schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, laboratory technology, and other allied health professions. The most common side effect is soreness at the site of injection. Illnesses, such as neurologic reactions, have been reported after vaccine is given, but hepatitis B vaccine is not believed to be the cause of these illnesses. As with any drug or vaccine, there is a rare possibility that allergic or more serious reactions or even death could occur. No deaths, however, have been reported in persons who have received this vaccine.