Experts have expressed concern about the Centres for Disease Control's (CDC) decision to end the recommendation that all newborns should receive the hepatitis shot, now leaving it up to parents, in consultation with healthcare providers, to decide whether babies born to hepatitis B-negative mothers should get the vaccine, including the birth dose.
Reuters reports that this follows a recommendation from Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s vaccine advisory panel that entails a major change in healthcare policy. Earlier this month, the panel recommended a birth dose should only be given to newborns whose mothers test positive for hepatitis B or whose status is unknown – which the CDC approved as policy on Tuesday.
If parents choose not to vaccinate their babies at birth, but feel vaccination is warranted, the agency now recommends they wait at least two months to get the child a first dose of the vaccine.
The policy change marks an abrupt end to 30 years of established medical guidance. Since 1991, US health officials have recommended universal vaccination for infants against hepatitis B, with the first of three shots administered shortly after birth.
Experts warn the new recommendation, which the CDC described as individual-based decision-making, could expose more children to the harmful virus and lead to more families opting out of vaccination without a firm federal policy in place.
Dr Emily Landon, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Chicago Medicine, said the CDC’s advisory panel’s job is to help clinicians interpret piles of science and help them make good decisions on how to care for their patients.
“This recommendation is ignoring the science. The fact that the acting director of the CDC would sign on to this just continues to reinforce that they are no longer committed to science-based recommendations for improving health,” she said.
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