{"id":16808,"date":"2025-12-22T04:05:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T04:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/hepatitis-b-vaccine-birth-dose-protects-infants-against-lifelong-health-consequences\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T04:05:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T04:05:14","slug":"hepatitis-b-vaccine-birth-dose-protects-infants-against-lifelong-health-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/?p=16808","title":{"rendered":"Hepatitis B vaccine birth dose protects infants against lifelong health consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics<\/a> and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices<\/a> (ACIP) have recommended universal hepatitis B vaccination of medically stable newborns weighing at least 2,000 grams within 24 hours of birth. After the unprecedented wholesale dismissal and replacement of the ACIP membership<\/a> in June 2025, the American Academy of Pediatrics posted a fact sheet<\/a> on its website emphasizing the significance of the hepatitis B vaccine birth dose and infant series in preventing acquisition of chronic infection. Although the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening for hepatitis B virus at the first prenatal visit<\/a>, a recent study found that more than 1 in 7 pregnant patients are never tested<\/a>; some women do not receive any prenatal care or become infected later in pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Perinatal hepatitis B infection has lifelong health consequences; 90% of infected infants develop chronic hepatitis B<\/a>, and 15% to 25% of those die from cirrhosis or liver cancer in adulthood. In addition to being vertically transmitted from infected mothers, hepatitis B virus can also be passed on to infants through incidental contact with blood or body fluids of infected household members. The birth dose thus functions as a safety net for thousands of children<\/a> who, before 1990, were being overlooked by risk factor\u2013based vaccination strategies<\/a>. Since its implementation in the United States, the birth dose has not only been associated with higher completion rates for the full hepatitis B vaccine series but also higher odds of receiving all recommended vaccines by age 19 months<\/a>. A study of birth dose use in Washington, DC, found that vaccine refusals declined from 12.1% in 2017 to 4.1% in 2020<\/a> and remained below 4% in 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, when the reconstituted ACIP met in September 2025, it came close to voting to delay the first dose of hepatitis B vaccine to 1 month of age<\/a> in infants born to hepatitis B surface antigen-negative mothers. This occurred despite the presentation of a systematic review by CDC staff that found no increased risk of any serious safety outcome<\/a> when the vaccine was administered within 24 hours of birth. As highlighted in an in-depth analysis of the meeting<\/a> by former ACIP members, the new committee repeatedly ignored its established processes for evaluating evidence and deliberating recommendations. Family physicians and former ACIP workgroup members Doug Campos-Outcalt and Jonathan Temte observed in a JAMA<\/i> Viewpoint<\/a>: \u201cThe evidence-based processes used by the ACIP were adopted to prevent exactly what happened at the first 2 meetings this year: presentation of anecdotes, selective quoting of single studies, and a lack of in-depth evaluation of some of the evidence presented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the ACIP deferred its vote on hepatitis B vaccine, preserving access to the birth dose for now. But in October, nearly all of the CDC staff that provided logistical support and subject-matter expertise to the ACIP was laid off<\/a>, imperiling production of the 2026 vaccine schedules and making future departures from evidence-based recommendations more likely.<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

This post first appeared on the AFP<\/i> Community Blog<\/a>. On December 2, the Vaccine Integrity Project<\/a> posted an independent review<\/a> of data on the efficacy, safety, and public health impact of hepatitis B vaccine at birth. In a decision analysis posted as a preprint<\/a>, authors affiliated with the Hepatitis B Foundation projected that “delaying Hep B vaccination to 12 years for infants of both HBsAg-negative and HBsAg-unknown parents resulted in an additional 2,351 acute infections, 744 deaths, and $368 million in excess costs.”<\/p>\n

Read full article at source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) have recommended universal hepatitis B vaccination of medically stable newborns weighing at least 2,000 grams within 24 hours of birth. After the unprecedented wholesale dismissal and replacement of the ACIP membership in June […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1747],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fitness-lifestyle"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickbydoc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}