at hospital Brian McMahon, a hepatologist on Alaska’s Anchorage tribe, has spent decades dealing with the aftereffects of hepatitis B. In the 1980s, before vaccines existed, he watched the virus claim young lives at an alarming rate in the state’s western communities.
One of his patients was 17 years old when he was examined for abdominal pain. Just weeks before he was to graduate from high school as valedictorian, McMahon discovered that he had liver cancer caused by hepatitis B.
He died before the ceremony.
McMahon also remembers an 8-year-old boy who showed no signs of illness until he complained of pain. It turned out to be a rapidly growing tumor in his liver. I can still hear his voice.
“I groaned in pain, saying, ‘I know I’m going to die soon,’” he recalled. “We were all crying.” The boy died at home a week later.
Hepatitis B virus is transmitted in microscopic amounts through blood and other body fluids and can survive on surfaces for up to a week. Like many of her patients, McMahon explained that both of her children contracted hepatitis B either at birth or during childhood.
Today, such outcomes are preventable.
Since 1991, the maximum number of doses of vaccine given at birth has been recommended for newborns. 90% effective If administered within 24 hours of birth, it prevents infections transmitted from the mother. If your baby receives all three doses: 98% develop immunity Against this incurable virus Lasts at least 30 years.
In western Alaska communities, cases have risen following years of targeted testing and widespread vaccination campaigns. will be dramatically reduced.
“Liver cancer has disappeared in children,” McMahon said. “We haven’t seen a single case since 1995. “Also, as far as we know, no one under the age of 30 has been infected.”
He worries that these hard-earned gains could be reversed.
Would you like to postpone your dose?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Vaccine Advisory Committee, appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is scheduled to discuss and vote on December 4 whether to maintain the recommendation for hepatitis B vaccination at birth.
This bill could limit children’s access to vaccines.
On Tucker Carlson’s podcast last June, Kennedy falsely claimed that hepatitis B birthrate was a “possible cause” of autism.
He also said that the hepatitis B virus is not “accidentally transmitted.” but Decades of Research This shows that the virus can be transmitted through indirect contact when traces of infected body fluids, such as blood, enter the body when sharing personal items such as razors or toothbrushes.
The committee’s recommendations have great impact. Most private insurance plans are required to cover vaccines approved by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and many state immunization policies are directly based on these guidelines.
However, neither ACIP nor CDC has a regulatory function. In other words, mandatory vaccines cannot be imposed. the responsibility falls on the state. However, maintaining recommendations for vaccinations at birth will ensure that families have the most options. You may be vaccinated at birth, you may be vaccinated later, or you may not be vaccinated at all. And insurance will continue to cover the cost of the vaccine as long as it remains approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Two senior FDA officials—Director Marty Makary and top vaccine regulator Vinay Prasad—suggested in late November: change is coming During the vaccine approval process. All vaccines must be approved by the FDA to be administered in the United States.
in internal email acquired by PBS NewsHour why washington postPrasad questioned the routine practice of “administering multiple vaccines at the same time.”
It is unclear whether he was referring to combination vaccines that prevent multiple diseases in a single dose. Of the nine hepatitis B vaccines currently approved by the FDA, three are combination vaccines. however Dosage at birth It is administered only as an individual vaccine.
“Sowing distrust”
Even if private insurance continues to cover the vaccine, misinformation arising from that meeting could lead some families to mistakenly believe the vaccine could harm their babies, he warned. Sean O’LearyHe is Chairman of the Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
“Whatever comes out of this December meeting disaster will be designed primarily to sow distrust and spread fear,” he said.
President Donald Trump, Kennedy and some new members of ACIP have distorted how this liver disease is transmitted and ignored or downplayed the risk of indirect transmission.
Hepatitis B virus is Much more contagious than HIV. Unvaccinated people, including children, can become infected through tiny amounts of blood on tables or toys, even if the infected person has no symptoms.
McMahon cared for children who were infected through indirect contact after testing negative at birth. in research In the 1970s, nearly a third of those children had chronic hepatitis B without showing symptoms, he explained.
“This is a highly contagious virus,” McMahon said. “So giving everyone the birth dose is the best way to prevent it.”
Although the CDC recommends that all pregnant women get tested for hepatitis B, it is estimated that up to 16% are excluded from registration because they do not get tested. O’Leary and other experts say it’s not possible to conduct testing right before or after birth because most hospitals don’t have enough staff or resources.
3-dose vaccine long safety record. Many studies have shown no increased risk of: infant death, fever or sepsis, multiple sclerosis to autoimmune disease. Serious reactions are rare.
“We have an excellent safety profile,” O’Leary said. “No one expects a car crash, right? But we all still wear seat belts. This is similar.”
The CDC estimates that 2.4 million people in the United States have hepatitis B. Half of people don’t know they are infected. This disease can range from acute to chronic infection. Often without symptoms. If left untreated, it can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer. There is no cure.
Recommendations for parents: Talk to your doctor
William SchaffnerThe professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt School of Medicine and former ACIP member said some parents find it difficult to understand why healthy newborns need the vaccine so quickly. This is especially true for viruses for which they are convinced there is no vaccine and for which they are often associated only with risky behavior. He noted that this perception is compounded by growing mistrust of public health and skepticism about vaccines.
Her advice to worried parents-to-be is to talk to your doctor about vaccines. Even if a pregnant woman tests negative, it is still important to administer the dose at birth because false negatives can occur and the virus can spread easily through contact with surfaces, she said.
Babies who have received a full series of vaccines from birth 84% less likely Incidence of liver cancer.
“If you wait a month and the mother tests positive or the baby infects a caregiver, the infection has already developed in the baby’s liver,” Schaffner explained. “It’s too late to stop it.”
He added that as fewer people get vaccinated, hepatitis B will spread more widely in American society, increasing the risk of infection for those who are not vaccinated.
And rising hepatitis B cases could mean more costs for both patients and the health care system.
The CDC estimates that it costs between $25,000 and $94,000 per year to treat a person with a less severe form of the disease. For people who need a liver transplant, annual medical costs can exceed $320,000, depending on treatment options.
Over the past 30 years, major side effects After applying the birth dose, parents reported increased crying and irritability, with symptoms quickly disappearing. Schaffner said this demonstrates the very strong safety profile of the neonatal vaccine in protecting against incurable diseases.
“The data on this is very clear,” he added. “Now there are several countries that have started this program. They have taken this program as a model for us.”
