An advisory committee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is scheduled to meet today in Atlanta to vote on the use of Hepatitis B vaccines in newborns.
According to the CDC, Hepatitis B is a liver disease that can cause chronic illness in infants.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s committee is considering whether to recommend the birth dose only for babies whose mothers test positive, which would mark a return to a public health strategy that was abandoned more than three decades ago. For other babies, it will be up to the parents and their doctors to decide if a birth dose is appropriate.
But Dr. Patricia Tibbs, President of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, says that plan would be risky because of faulty tests or delays.
In a hospital with a lab department, testing the mother for Hepatitis B can take a few hours.
“But if you’re in a county hospital somewhere in a lab desert in Mississippi, you won’t have the results back in time. And then by 12-24 hours, that first dose if not given within that time is no longer as efficient at eliminating perinatal Hepatitis B,” says Dr. Tibbs.
Dr Tibbs says the testing process isn’t perfect.
According to the CDC, testing is effective once a patient starts showing symptoms of Hepatitis B. But it can take up to 90 days after exposure before symptoms appear.
“If you don’t give that vaccine, and Hepatitis B gets transmitted, you’ve changed a life,” says Dr. Tibbs. “From a life of wellness, to a life of chronic illness, potentially cancer and death. That is too high a price to pay for anyone.”
According to Mississippi State Epidemiologist Dr. Renia Dotson, the state will continue to offer the Hepatitis B vaccine to newborns until a decision is made by the CDC. At that time, she says the health department will consider if and how policies could change.
The advisory committee for the CDC was expected to vote on the issue on Thursday, but members voted to delay another day after some voiced confusion about the voting language.
