Background: This study explores the global barriers for effective uptake of Hepatitis-B vaccination.

Materials and methods : About 883 journal articles and reports on hepatitis B barrier were retrieved through PMC data base and Google scholar search. Only 29 most relevant items during last 10 years were identified and analysed. Pile sorting was used as a method of grouping of barriers.

Results:Overall 76 barriers have been identified for effective uptake of hepatitis-B vaccines. One-third of the barriers are related to system issues, one-fourth of the barriers were related  to caregiver education or awareness, fear of side effect, migration etc., one-fifth barriers were related to service provider issues like poor out-reach, home visits, poor communication and/relation with the caregivers, failure to identify unimmunized children etc., and other barriers were social-cultural issues. The review reveals limited availability and accessibility to health-facility based immunization, lack of awareness among caregivers, poor communication by the healthcare workers and negative relationships with the beneficiaries, cost of vaccine in private sector, inconvenience time & place of vaccination etc. as the major barriers for vaccine uptake.

Conclusions:Myriad and contextual barriers for reduced hepatitis-B vaccine uptake may be partly due to nomenclature and different stages of hepatitis-B vaccination implementation. Contextual redressal of barriers should be given priority.