The federal government has scaled back recommended childhood vaccines, excluding six that have protected millions of people from serious illness, long-term disability and death.
Just the three drugs for hepatitis A, hepatitis B and rotavirus that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said will no longer be routinely recommended have prevented nearly 2 million hospitalizations and 90,000 deaths over the past 30 years. CDC’s own publications.
Federal and private insurance We will still cover the vaccine.
Childhood disease experts were baffled by the changes, which the Department of Health and Human Services said followed a “scientific review of the basic science.”
The vaccine, he said, “is held to a higher safety standard than any other medical intervention we use.” Lori HandyHe is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “The value of routine recommendations is that it really helps the public understand that this has been looked at backwards in every way.”
Public health officials said the guidance places the onus on parents to research each vaccine and its significance. Here’s what to prevent:
RSV. Respiratory syncytial virus is the most common cause of hospitalization in infants and young children in the United States. It spreads in the fall and winter, causes cold-like symptoms, and causes tens of thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths every year.
Hepatitis A. Hepatitis A vaccination, recommended for all infants since 2006, has reduced the disease by more than 90% since 1996. Foodborne viruses that cause devastating diseases still plague adults, especially those who are homeless or who abuse drugs or alcohol. 1,648 infected, 85 deaths Reported in 2023.
Hepatitis B The disease causes liver cancer, cirrhosis, and other serious illnesses, and is especially dangerous for infants and young children. Hepatitis B virus is transmitted in minute amounts through blood and other body fluids and can survive on surfaces for up to a week. From 1990 to 2019, vaccination reduced reported cases of acute hepatitis B among children and adolescents by 99%. Liver cancer among American children has also plummeted due to universal childhood vaccinations.
Rotavirus. Before routine administration of the rotavirus vaccine began in 2006, the virus, known as “winter vomiting syndrome,” hospitalized 70,000 children and killed 50 each year, said Sean O’Leary, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado. “It was a miserable disease that is no longer seen.”
Meningococcal disease. Approximately 600 to 1,000 cases of meningococcal disease are reported each year in the United States, killing more than 10% of those who develop it and leaving one in five survivors disabled.
flu. The virus has claimed the lives of hundreds of children in recent years, but tends to be much more serious in older people.
