Three doses of HEPLISAV-B vaccine provide full protection to adults with HIV, who were never immunised against hepatitis B virus (HBV) either through vaccination or infection, according to a study.

In the research presented at the annual IDWeek conference held in Washington, US from October 19 to 23, the researchers from University of Cincinnati and Cornell University tested the three-dose course of HEPLISAV-B among 68 adults living with HIV at 38 sites in the US, South Africa, and Thailand.

None of the participants had either received a previous HBV vaccination or had evidence of a previous HBV infection – all were on antiretroviral therapy to combat infection by retroviruses such as HIV.

Retroviruses are a group of viruses that contain two single-strand linear RNA molecules per virion, or a viral particle, and reverse transcriptase (RNA to DNA).