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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday ended a long-standing recommendation that all US newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine.<\/p>\n
The agency\u2019s move follows a vote<\/a> from health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.\u2019s vaccine advisory panel that a birth dose should only be given to newborns whose mothers test positive for hepatitis B or whose status is unknown.<\/p>\n The CDC will now advise parents to consult a healthcare provider to decide whether infants born to hepatitis B-negative mothers should get the vaccine, including the birth dose.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are restoring the balance of informed consent to parents whose newborns face little risk of contracting hepatitis B,\u201d acting director of the CDC and deputy health secretary Jim O\u2019Neill said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n If parents choose not to vaccinate their newborn at birth, but feel vaccination is warranted, the agency now recommends that they wait at least two months to get the child a first dose of the vaccine.<\/p>\n 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 right after birth.<\/p>\n Experts have voiced concern around the policy change, which the CDC describes as \u201cindividual-based decision making\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is going to lead to an increase in preventable infections among children,\u201d Michaela Jackson, program director of prevention policy at the Hepatitis B<\/a> Foundation, told the Guardian<\/a> after the vaccine advisers\u2019 vote earlier this month. She anticipates that \u201cparents are not going to know who to trust any longer\u201d.<\/p>\n Jackson also said that the policy change is \u201cremoving choice by causing barriers to access.\u201d The agency\u2019s recommendations affect US health insurance coverage and play a key role in assisting physicians who are choosing appropriate vaccines for patients.<\/p>\n Hepatitis B can lead to serious liver disease and is primarily spread through blood, semen, or certain other body fluids, and can also be spread by close contact with people who do not know they are infected.<\/p>\n Hepatitis B infections have fallen nearly 90%<\/a> in the US from 9.6 per 100,000 individuals before vaccination became widespread in 1982 to about one per 100,000 in 2018.<\/p>\n