Hepatitis B sero-prevalence in children under 15 years of age in South Africa using residual samples from community-based febrile rash surveillance.

Chronic hepatitis B in South African has decreased in prevalence from highly endemic levels prior to vaccine introduction to approximately 0.4% in this sample, demonstrating impact of a successful vaccination programme 18 years after introduction. Decreased vaccine-induced immunity with increasing age may reflect waning antibody titres over time.