Vaccination in delivery wards leads to high timely coverage of hepatitis B birth dose vaccine in Islamabad-Pakistan, 2023 Authors Huma Qureshi Department of Gastroenterology and National Focal Point hepatitis, Karachi, Pakistan Hassan Mahmood Integral Global, Islamabad, Pakistan Syed Ejaz Alam Pakistan Medical Research Council, Islamabad, Pakistan Atiya Aabroo Department of Infectious Diseases, Ministry of Health, Islamabad, Pakistan Zafar Iqbal Channa Federal Directorate of Immunisation, Islamabad, Pakistan Asma Shaheen Federal Government Services Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan Zofishan Jabeen Fatima Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan Nancy Glass U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, USA Nino Khetsuriani U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, USA Muhammad Ahmed Kazi Kazi Department of Health and Immunisation, Ministry of Health, Islamabad, Pakistan Rania A. Tohme U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, USA DOI: https://doi.org/10.47391/JPMA.23264 Keywords: Hepatitis B birth dose, immunization, mother to child transmission, expanded program for immunization Abstract Despite a high burden of hepatitis B in Pakistan, administration of hepatitis B birth dose (HepB-BD) has not been introduced on a national level and timely coverage remains low in selected provinces where the vaccine is available. This project was undertaken to assess the ease of timely (within 24 hours of birth) administration of HepB-BD by delivery nurses. A total of 1,000 HepB-BD doses were provided to delivery units of two public tertiary care hospitals in Islamabad. Out of 2,008 births in three months, 2,000 (99.6%) were vaccinated with HepB-BD. Out of 1,986 new-borns with available time of vaccine administration, all received the vaccine within 24 hours of birth with 98.3% receiving the vaccine within an hour of delivery. Delivery wards are the best setting to provide HepB-BD. Provinces that are already procuring HepB-BD and future nationwide introduction of HepB-BD in Pakistan could use lessons from this pilot study to ensure high coverage with timely administration of HepB-BD. Keywords: Hepatitis B birth dose, Immunisation, Mother to child transmission, Expanded programme for immunisation. Downloads Full Text Article Published 2025-12-20 How to Cite Huma Qureshi, Mahmood, H., Alam, S., Aabroo, A., Channa, Z. I., Shaheen, A., Fatima, Z. J., Glass, N., Khetsuriani, N., Kazi, M. A. K., & Tohme, R. A. (2025). Vaccination in delivery wards leads to high timely coverage of hepatitis B birth dose vaccine in Islamabad-Pakistan, 2023. Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 76(01), 86–89. https://doi.org/10.47391/JPMA.23264 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Download Citation Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX Issue Vol. 76 No. 01 (2026): JANUARY Section SHORT COMMUNICATION License Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.