In response to the vote by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to end the recommendation of hepatitis B vaccination for all infants at birth, Dr. Ulrich von Andrian, President of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI), released the following statement:
AAI is extremely disappointed in the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) vote to end the recommendation of hepatitis B vaccination for all infants at birth. AAI strongly urges the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reject the recommendation and reaffirm the long-standing, evidence-based guidance to administer the first dose within 24 hours of birth for all infants.
The science behind the hepatitis B vaccine is robust and well-established. The hepatitis B vaccine has an exceptional safety record, and it is extremely effective at preventing lifelong, chronic infection in infants who might otherwise be exposed to the virus during childbirth or early life. In fact, since implementation of vaccination at birth, chronic hepatitis B cases in children and adolescents have fallen by 99%.
More than 90% of infants who contract hepatitis B at or around birth will go on to develop chronic hepatitis B. Of those, roughly one in four face a premature death from liver disease or liver cancer. The impact this has on families, and the healthcare system, can be effectively mitigated with use of vaccines.
Delaying the vaccine would mark a dangerous departure from decades of achievement in preventing hepatitis B infection and its complications. Recent independent analysis warns that even a modest delay could result in a substantial increase in preventable chronic infections, liver cancers, and deaths.
Now is not the time to undermine confidence in one of the most successful vaccine-based public health interventions in modern history. AAI calls on ACIP and the CDC to ground its deliberations — and any final recommendations — solely in rigorous science and public health data.
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