A Dec. 5 vote by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel would relax decades-old guidance on the hepatitis B vaccine for infants. Instead of the standard immediate dose for all newborns, the committee recommended that the birth dose be optional for infants of mothers who test negative for hepatitis B.
The recommendation has drawn criticism across the medical community. Dr. Evelyn Hsu, a pediatric liver specialist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, explains why the previous vaccination guidance, in place since 1991, is crucial to protecting the health of children and their families. Without that early protection, infants may be exposed to the virus through undetected infection or everyday contact.
“My worry is that if we stop giving the vaccination to babies, there is going to be a number of children who are infected or at risk for being infected from undetected infection in their mothers or from other undetected children who then go on to develop chronic hepatitis B,” Hsu said.
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Related: American Academy of Pediatrics fact sheet on the hepatitis B vaccine series
Video production by Tim Griffis and Nathan Hyun.
