Hepatitis-B Prevention and Gamma Globulin

Excerpt

To the editor: It was disheartening to read your publication of the Public Health Advisory Committee's Recommendations (pages 427-430, September 1972) concerning the prophylaxis of viral hepatitis.

Whereas the recommendations are correct insofar as they go, the Committee has apparently chosen to ignore completely certain data that have recently been published.

Although human immune globulin given as an intramuscular injection after exposure seems of dubious value in the prevention of type B (HAA + ) hepatitis, recent work by Katz, Rodriguez, and Ward (1) shows that even standard gamma globulin modified for intravenous administration has a definitive role in prophylaxis