Health Headline: CDC changes recommendations for infant hepatitis B vaccines
Officials say women who test negative for the disease should decide on an individual basis whether to give their child the newborn dose.
More Stories
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted to change the recommendation for when infants should get the hepatitis B vaccine.
Officials say women who test negative for the disease should decide on an individual basis whether to give their child the newborn dose.
Dr. Sharon Nachman, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Stony Brook Children's Hospital, says there could be negative consequences from this decision.
Unlike other viruses, once a baby gets hepatitis B, it doesn't go away.
For the past two decades, Dr. Nachman says the CDC recommended babies get three doses of the vaccine, and the first one should be within the first 24 hours after birth.
Now the CDC says it should be up to the parents whether their newborn gets the shot.
However, officials are still recommending babies get their first dose after they are 2 months old.
Dr. Nachman says the impacts of this decision won't be seen for years to come.
“Hepatitis B is a silent infection," Dr. Nachman said. "The baby looks fine. They do great. They go to school. They go to high school. They go to college. It's 10 to 20 years into their lives that their livers start acting sick. As you can imagine, at that time, it's too late to fix.”
The New York State Department of Health says it won't be changing its infant vaccine recommendations even after this vote.
It is also keeping the school immunization requirements the same.
