CDC Formally Adopts Delayed Hepatitis B Vaccine Dose

 

The CDC accepted the recommendation of its advisory committee that the shot be delayed for many patients until they are at least two months of age due to safety concerns. The CDC itself has said the vaccine is safe and effective.

The CDC has accepted the recommendation of its vaccine advisory committee and ended the three-decade-long practice of giving most newborn children a birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine.

The change in recommendation, announced Tuesday, leaves the decision of whether to vaccinate children up to parents in consultation with their healthcare providers. If parents still want to get their kids vaccinated, the CDC now recommends the dose be given no earlier than two months of age.

For children of mothers who have tested positive for hepatitis B, the CDC still recommends that they receive the birth dose vaccinations.

The CDC maintained that the change in recommendation does not alter coverage of the shot under payment mechanisms, including the Vaccines for Children Program, Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicaid and Medicare.

Original story published Dec. 5

CDC’s Vaccine Committee Recommends Delaying Hepatitis B Birth Dose

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted Friday to recommend delaying the hepatitis B vaccine to two months after birth for some infants, pushing it back from the birth dose that has been given for about 30 years.

The tally, at 8-3, came after the committee delayed the vote from Thursday’s meeting. Committee members were presented with multiple versions of voting language that day and decided to table the decision to give themselves more time to decide.

The change only affects children whose mothers test negative for hepatitis B. The committee did not change the recommendation for mothers who test positive, whose children should still receive the birth dose of the vaccine.

Hepatitis B can cause liver disease, including cancer. In a briefing put out ahead of this week’s ACIP meeting, The Evidence Collective, an organization focused on public communication of public health information, noted, “Given that the HBV vaccine is so established as being safe for newborns and that if they are infected within the first year of life, their risk of chronic hepatitis B can be 90% or higher, it is entirely reasonable to recommend the HepB birth doses universally. Perhaps most importantly, before universal screening, 7-11% of children born to hepatitis B-negative mothers still contracted the virus via household or community exposure.”

The CDC itself notes that the “scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports the safety of hepatitis B vaccines,” and that most adverse events are injection site soreness.

https://www.biospace.com/policy/cdcs-vaccine-advisers-again-delay-hep-b-vote