My Wife And Baby Need Hepititus B Vacinne In Thailand

[dmax]

i have contacted hep b. my baby daughter got her first peadiatric dose/vacinne in uk 3 weeks ago before we came to thailand, today i brought her to the hospital in isaan (tha kanto) doctors hadnt a clue what my wife was telling them ( i was pulling my hair out trying to make her understand to confer to doctors that my baby needed a second peadiatric dose /injection ). doctors couldnt speak english so we are going to udon thani tomorow morning to try get an english speaking doctor who knows what baby needs , also my wife needs her first vacinne .

what i want to know is this baby got her first dose on 27th jan 2011, she got 10 mg of engerix-b , if she goes to udon tomorrow and gets a second vacinne but a differerent brand name will it work ? likewise my wife needs her first dose tomorrow then a further dose in 2 weeks time then a booster in ukn on our return though in the uk they wont have the same brand as thailand,

this is seriously annoying, i need advaice asap about this please.

also i said to doctor today ( as best i could ) that baby needed peadiatric dose !!! he said that the mother and daughter dose is the same , though i was told by babies doctor in uk she needed a peadiatric dose ?

please ...in short what should i do ? take a risk and wait untill we return to uk on 3rd april ?

can my baby or wife get it through me say sneezing ? or is it only blood to blood , semen to semen ?

thanks for any help in advance

[Sheryl]

I think your problems were purely linguistic.

Energix-B both adult and pediatric is available in Thailand, same exact thing as you got in the UK. (other brands are also here, but since you can get the same thing as you started wuith no reason to switch now).

The adult and pediatric vaccines are the same drug but in different dosage. The pediatric is 10 mg (0.5ml) and the adult is 20mg (1 ml).

Both are a series of 3 injections. The second one is given 1 month after the first, and the third 6 months after the first. I don't know why you were told 2 weeks for the second injection , according to the manufacturer's literature it is 1 month. http://us.gsk.com/products/assets/us_engerixb.pdf

So you are excactly in time with regard to your baby.

In the case of your wife (and assuming she has been tested and is both antigen and antibody neagtive), Hep B immunoglobulin may also be recommended. But she needs to be tested, since this is neither indicated nor effective is she is already infected or has been at any time in the past.

[dmax]

thanks sheryl, my wife was tested before we came away, she is negitive thank god !! i hope my baby is but cant see any reason why she could be possitive she is 19 mths old now. will go to udon tomorrow morning, any advice on good hospital / clinic in udon ? also i want to check my liver as i havent stopped drinking since being diagnosed . when first diagnosed in isaan 3 mths ago the doctor could not speak good english only to write on paper (1) hep b acute. (2) ciroccis liver ( alcoholism ) when i went to my doc in uk last month he done a test for hep b and hiv ...hep b came back poss, hiv came back neg. he told me i must stop drinking , easier said than done although i only drink beer and not hard liquor, ive never drunk whiskey or vodka etc in 15 years or so. i am 43 yrs old now.

so could they get a different brand in thailand and then go back to uk get a different brand again and be ok ? will 2 different company brands work together that is what i need to know . thanks very much

[Sheryl]

As I said before, there is no need to get a different brand. The same exact brand you got in the UK is available here. Energix-B, made by Glasko Smith Kline.

Afraid I don't have any experince with doctors/hospitals in Udon. I know there is a (self-styled) "international" hospital called Aek Udon, should be a good bet for the vaccine and would certainly be able to do liver function tests (blood tests). You should also see a specialist in liver disease and get an ultrasound of the liver if not already done.

Hep B is a serious disease. It is essential that you not drink at all. Beer is just as bad as anything else, alcohol is alcohol.

If you also have alcoholic cirrhosis, as the prior doctor thought, then your situation is extremely bad. You need to get your act together fast or your daughter may grow up without a father.

Contact AA. They have meetings in several locations in Thailand. http://www.aathailand.org/regisaan.html