US federal panel recommends stopping hepatitis B vaccination for newborns

Washington.- A U.S. vaccine advisory panel voted Friday to suspend a long-standing recommendation to immunize newborns against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that can cause chronic liver disease in a large proportion of affected children.

This measure would end the universal practice of vaccinating babies against hepatitis B, which the United States has maintained since 1991 and which, according to health experts, has prevented more than 500,000 infections and approximately 90,100 infant deaths.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, recently renewed by the controversial Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., voted in favor (8 to 3) to let women with negative test results for the virus decide individually whether they want their children to be vaccinated at birth. The panel did not modify the recommendation to immunize against hepatitis B in cases where mothers have been reported as infected or with inconclusive or unknown status.

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These changes are not expected to affect health insurance coverage, although it does represent a victory for the Department of Health led by Kennedy Jr., known for his anti-vaccine stances and promoter of unproven theories about their relationship with autism. Several of the new members of the immunization advisory panel are close collaborators of the US secretary, who in June dismissed the 17 members of the commission, citing the need to restore public trust in the organization. The vote this Friday was postponed twice since September, after several committee members stated that they did not have enough data to make a decision. More than seventy experts in health policies and the American Public Health Association (APHA), which represents more than 23,000 members, warned about the dangers of ending this immunization, which they call a "milestone in US child health policy." "This immunization schedule has practically eliminated chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections in children. Since then, no evidence has emerged to raise doubts about the efficacy or safety of universal newborn immunization," the APHA insisted in a statement. According to the organization, "eliminating the universal newborn immunization policy and delaying the initial dose of HBV until a later stage of childhood poses significant health risks".