(WXYZ) — A vote on the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns has been pushed to Friday. Advisors say the wording kept changing, and they were confused about exactly what they were being asked to vote on.
The decision could affect long-standing guidance on the hepatitis B shot.
Since 1991, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended that every newborn get the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of life. It’s been incredibly effective. Pediatric hepatitis B infections have dropped by 99%, from 16,000 to less than 20.
So what’s behind this discussion? A proposal earlier this year suggested delaying the dose for babies whose mothers test negative for hepatitis B. Discussion included recommending “individual-based decision-making” between mothers and their doctors.
But here’s the challenge: around 12% to 18% of pregnant women in the U.S. are never tested for hepatitis B. Some test results can be missed due to false negatives or errors. And many mothers who test positive don’t get the recommended follow-up care. So babies can fall through the cracks.
Sadly, 9 out of 10 babies who catch hepatitis B become chronically infected. That means their immune system doesn’t clear the virus properly. Hepatitis B is a serious liver infection and can lead to scarring called cirrhosis, liver failure or even liver cancer later in life. For infants who develop chronic infection, roughly 25% die earlier from the disease.
If the guidance changes, I worry it will confuse parents and increase risk at a time when babies are most vulnerable.
There is data from the Vaccine Integrity Project report that is quite sobering. It estimates that delaying the vaccine from birth until two months of age could lead to more than 1,400 infections in children and over 480 deaths per year.
Keep in mind, hepatitis B isn’t only passed from mother to baby. Roughly 2.4 million people in the U.S. have hepatitis B, and nearly half don’t know that they’re infected. So, a baby could get it from a caregiver, a friend, a family member or even from contaminated surfaces because the virus can live for more than a week outside the body.
That’s why giving that first dose is very important. Data from 400 studies and reports over 40 years show that it’s safe and it works. As a doctor and a parent myself, I support the birth dose. And so does the American Academy of Pediatrics because it saves lives.
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