Treating the liver disease hepatitis A with the hepatitis A vaccine is as effective as treating it with
the more traditional injection of immune globulin, a new study found.

　Based on these results, the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee
on Immunization Practices now recommends the vaccine as the preferred treatment for the hepatitis A
virus, according to a report in the CDC's Oct. 19 issue of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

　"The primary finding of the study is that hepatitis A vaccine appears to work equally as well as
immune globulin after exposure to the virus," said lead researcher John C. Victor, with the Program for
Appropriate Technology in Health, in Seattle.

　For the vaccine to be effective as a treatment, just like immune globulin, it must be given within two
weeks of exposure to hepatitis A. "Any longer than that is too late," Victor said.

　The vaccine appears to work, because hepatitis A has a 28-day incubation period, so the vaccine has
time to build immunity before the virus takes hold, Victor said.

　In the study, Victor's team randomly assigned 1,090 people from Almaty, Kazakhstan, who had
been exposed to hepatitis A to either a dose of the hepatitis A vaccine or immune globulin. All the
study participants were between 2 and 40 years old, according to a report on the study in an Oct. 18
early release from the New England Journal of Medicine.

　The researchers found that of all the people in the trial, 25 who received the vaccine and 17 who
received immune globulin later showed symptoms of hepatitis A. Victor's group concluded that
treatment with the vaccine is as effective as immune globulin.

　The advantage of the vaccine is that it's readily available and has fewer side effects than immune
globulin, Victor said. "Anyone who has had immune globulin will tell you it's not always a very fun
shot. It's like getting injected with corn syrup, and it tends to cause a lot of local reaction and pain at
the site of the injection," he said.

　Immune globulin also offers only six months of protection, while the vaccine -- especially if one gets
a second dose -- will protect for life, Victor said. "To ensure long-term protection, you need that second
shot," he said.