US: ACIP votes to end universal hepatitis B birth dose, despite widespread scientific objections

On Dec. 5, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to rescind the universal recommendation for a hepatitis B birth-dose vaccine for infants born to hepatitis B surface antigen–negative mothers—an unprecedented shift in national vaccination policy that infectious disease and pediatric experts repeatedly warned had no scientific justification and would predictably result in avoidable hepatitis B infections and infant harm.

The final language of the recommendation stated:

“ACIP recommends individual-based decision making in consultation with a healthcare provider for parents deciding when or if to give the hepatitis B virus vaccine, including the birth dose. Parents and healthcare providers should consider vaccine benefits, vaccine risk, and infection risk. For those not receiving the hepatitis B virus birth dose, it is suggested that the initial dose is administered no earlier than two months of age.”

The 8-3 vote overturns three decades of practice in which the first hepatitis B vaccine dose was administered within 24 hours of birth, a strategy credited with preventing hundreds of thousands of chronic infections, particularly in cases where maternal screening is delayed, incomplete, or incorrect. The committee took this action without presenting new evidence comparing outcomes of infants vaccinated at birth versus those receiving their first dose at 2 months of age.

Several ACIP members and liaison representatives argued that weakening the birth-dose recommendation risks reversing decades of progress.

Read the full news story here.

SEE ALSO:

• Treatment Action Group (TAG) statement: TAG condemns the ACIP decision to remove birth vaccination for HBV from federal guidelines, calls for Senate Oversight Hearings and the immediate resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and all vaccine denialist HHS appointees