Prevention of Hepatitis with Gamma Globulin

Excerpt

To the editor: In the December issue, Hoofnagle and colleagues (1) conclude that immune serum gamma globulin (ISG) preparations produce passive-active immunity when administered after exposure and suggest that when older lots of ISG were administered before exposure, they acted by inducing active immunity. Further they speculate that with the introduction of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) screening of donors in 1972, the immunogenic effect of serum globulin probably disappeared for hepatitis B. Their data and that of others provide reasonable support for the conclusion that after exposure, ISG administration acts by passive-active immunization. Their other conclusions, however, deserve closer