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For years the CDC-recommended postexposure prophylaxis for hepatitis A was an injection of immune globulin (IG). Hepatitis A vaccination has recently become the preferred prophylaxis in some cases, partially because of the results of this large blinded study, which received some financial support from the vaccine manufacturer. The study was performed in Kazakhstan, where hepatitis A is considerably more common than in the U.S.
Household or day-care contacts, aged 2 to 40, were randomized to receive one dose of either immune globulin or vaccine within 14 days of exposure. A tiny minority of contacts in both groups (about 4% of vaccine recipients vs. about 3% of IG recipients) developed symptomatic hepatitis A, diagnosed by both serologic and …