A dangerous idea is on the table: ending universal hepatitis B birth-dose vaccination in the United States. For many years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that every baby born in this country receive the vaccine, preventing infections and deaths from a disease that causes liver cancer and deadly cirrhosis. (Most other higher-income countries have the same recommendation.) Abandoning this protection would condemn thousands of children every year to lifelong infection. One in four babies infected at birth eventually die from this preventable infection.
Consideration about whether to repeal the universal protection against hepatitis B was on the agenda for discussion by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in its September meeting until a last-minute postponement — reportedly because one member wanted to change the childhood vaccination schedule by delaying vaccination even more drastically. This is just the latest example of a troubling trend: Retreat from proven, lifesaving interventions not because they failed, but because they succeed.
