BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont will continue recommending hepatitis B vaccines for all newborns despite a CDC advisory panel vote Friday to roll back federal recommendations.
For decades, the government has advised that all babies be vaccinated against hepatitis B within 24 hours after birth. Those shots are widely considered to be a public health success, causing infections to fall 99 percent since they were introduced in 1991, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
But U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s committee voted 8-3 Friday to recommend it at birth only for babies whose mothers test positive. For all others, it will be up to the parents and doctors.
“The language offers flexibility, access, coverage at any time — I vote yes,” said Dr. Hillary Blackburn owith the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
But Dr. Cody Meissner of the same committee disagreed. “We’ve heard do no harm is a moral imperative — we are doing harm by changing this wording and I vote no,” Meissner said.
Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Rick Hildebrant agrees it will do harm. “We are very concerned that any change to that could have profound impacts to kids,” he said, adding that the consequences of a child contracting hepatitis B can be deadly.
The American Academy of Pediatrics says hepatitis B attacks the liver and chronic versions can lead to liver damage, liver failure, liver cancer or death. Adults may not know they have the highly contagious infection and can pass it to newborns via bodily fluids during labor and delivery.
The AAP says newborns infected with hepatitis B have a 90 percent chance of developing chronic illness. And 25 percent of children who get chronic hepatitis B will die from it. But 98 percent of those who get the full vaccine series, starting with the shot at birth, have full immunity.
“I don’t think anyone wants to go back to the way things were prior to 1991. This has been one of the most successful vaccinations that we’ve had. It’s very, very safe and has dramatically reduced the incidents of illness and death in children,” Hildebrant said.
He said this debate illustrates how health care is becoming politicized. “That’s what we’re seeing right now — people are making recommendations or decisions for reasons other than what’s in the best interest of people, and I really hate to see that,” Hildebrant said.
