A group of advisers on Friday ignored a long-standing recommendation that all American children should Receive hepatitis B vaccine at birthThis represented a major political victory for Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. … This, according to disease experts, will reverse decades of progress in public health.
The committee voted to keep the birth dose for infants only Those whose mothers tested positive for the viruswhich replaces the 1991 global recommendation protecting all children from hepatitis B infection, which can cause serious liver disease.
For children whose mothers tested negative, the committee advised parents, after consultation with a health care professional, Decide whether your child should receive the vaccine series If so, when to do it. As recommended, the dose at birth is followed by two more doses, at 1 or 2 months and at 6 or 18 months.
The committee advised parents to give the first dose Not before the age of two months. Public health experts condemned the move and said it would create obstacles to the use of vaccines.
The committee advises the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on which public health recommendations should be adopted. It affects To cover medical insurance They play a crucial role in helping doctors make the right choices.
Kennedy support
Kennedy, founder of the anti-vaccine children’s health advocacy group, It expelled 17 former independent experts in June It replaced them with a group that largely supported their views. During the two-day meeting, two committee members strongly opposed the change, saying there was no data to support it and decades of data on the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.
Several members of the committee, a group that no longer includes any immunologists, argued as much There was no data proving that the vaccine was safe They stated that the United States was far behind other similar countries.
The World Health Organization recommends that all children receive the hepatitis B vaccine As soon as possible after birthfollowed by two or three doses at an interval of not less than four weeks. It is reported that 95% of infected newborns will develop chronic hepatitis.