Hepatitis B infant shot: Health experts concerned over potential changes in vaccine panel's guidance

As U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine advisory panel gears up to debate hepatitis B immunization for infants this week, health experts say that delaying the shot usually given at birth will lead to preventable deaths and conditions like liver cancer.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel is scheduled to vote on its guidance on the newborn hepatitis B vaccine during its two-day meeting in Atlanta starting Thursday. The disease can be passed from mother to child, and can also be transmitted through sexual intercourse and the sharing of needles.

Several panel members during a September meeting talked about delaying the birth dose of hepatitis vaccine but the group didn’t vote on the matter at that time. 

At least 1,400 children each year could get a hepatitis B infection if the initial jab given to infants at birth was delayed by two months, according to an analysis done by researchers and public health experts, released Monday. More than 470 deaths could occur as a result, the analysis said. 

And the deferred shot could result in more than $220 million in additional medical costs, according to the research, which was done in partnership with the Hepatitis B Foundation and several other groups.

"When vaccination is delayed, whether by months or by years, we see predictable and preventable increases in new infections, chronic disease, liver cancer, and related deaths; these findings show how important timely protection at birth is for safeguarding children’s long-term health, ” Eric Hall, lead author of the research and a professor at Oregon Health & Science University — Portland State University School of Public Health, said in a statement.

The advisory committee provides certain vaccine-use guidance to the CDC, which the agency’s directors and many physicians typically follow. 

This year, Kennedy, who has a history of expressing anti-vaccine views, terminated members of the committee and installed several people who have espoused similar opinions. Recently, the committee chose not to endorse COVID-19 vaccinations, leaving it as a personal choice.

For over three decades, healthy infants have been given a hepatitis B shot at birth, with subsequent jabs given during childhood, according to a report this week from the University of Minnesota’s Vaccine Integrity Project. Because of vaccination, the rate of hepatitis B virus among children has gone down by 99%.

Experts say vaccination remains an essential tool because some pregnant women aren’t tested for hepatitis B. And without preventive care, roughly 90% of infants who get hepatitis B around birth will have a chronic hepatitis B infection, the paper said, citing other research.

Daniel Raymond, director of policy at the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, said in the statement that "delaying HepB birth dose immunization jeopardizes the health of our children and three decades of progress towards hepatitis B elimination."

— With AP

By Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

tiffany.cusaac-smith@newsday.com@T_Cusaac

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith is a general assignment reporter for Newsday. She previously worked at USA TODAY and is an alum of Howard University.