I think it is reasonable to go ahead and get a hepatitis B vaccination. I think the risk of acquiring hepatitis B is for most people higher than the risk of it triggering MS if you have no history of MS yourself (even with your father's history).

See the following article from the "national center for immunization" at



which in part says " the weight of all the currently available scientific
evidence shows no association between hepatitis B
vaccine and multiple sclerosis. Concern about hepatitis B
vaccination arose from France in the mid 1990s.
Following a mass hepatitis B vaccination program in
France there were reports of MS developing in some
patients a few weeks after receiving the vaccine. In 1998,
the French government stopped the school-based hepatitis
B component of the vaccination program while they
investigated a possible relationship between hepatitis B
vaccine and demyelinating disease. When studies of the
French vaccine recipients were completed they showed
that there was not a significant increase in the number of
vaccinated people who developed MS as compared with
those who had never received hepatitis B vaccine. Since
that time, there have been more than seven published
studies that have consistently shown no association
between receipt of hepatitis B vaccine and MS. Some of
the other findings that support this include:
• A study in British Columbia, Canada, that investigated
multiple sclerosis in 578,308 adolescents over an 8-year
period before and after a hepatitis B vaccination
program was begun showed no evidence of a link
between hepatitis B vaccination and multiple sclerosis
or other demyelinating disease.
• A study in 2001 of 192 women with MS and 645
control patients who did not have MS showed no
increased risk of MS in those who received hepatitis B
vaccine.
• Another study in 2001 looked at hepatitis B, tetanus,
and influenza vaccines in patients with MS, and showed
no evidence of these vaccines being associated with MS
relapses (worsening of MS symptoms).
• A study in the United States of over 1,400 participants
did not show any association between hepatitis B
vaccination and MS or other types of demyelinating
disease.
• Mass immunisation programs with hepatitis B vaccine
in New Zealand, Taiwan and Alaska have not resulted
in any serious adverse events or illnesses suggestive of
MS.
• Extensive pre-licensure clinical trials of hepatitis B
vaccine did not document MS as a side-effect. "

Always consult with your own physician. For what it's worth, I've had the Hepatitis B vaccine myself, which I think is a good idea for anyone in the medical profession or otherwise potentially exposed to Hepatitis B

K Holmes

Neurology Consultants