"Confusion and disagreement over the language of the votes led the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, to push them to Friday. The committee meeting was marked by unusual conflict and chaos. "This is the third version of the questions that we have received in 72 hours, and we're trying to evaluate a moving target," said Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a psychiatrist and voting member of the committee. "I protest the description that the ACIP members have been consulted in developing these questions.""
"The current recommendation is intended to make sure no at-risk infant falls through the cracks, and to confer lifelong protection for all U.S. children against the hepatitis B virus, which can cause serious, potentially fatal health problems. It is the cornerstone of a decades-long strategy to eliminate hepatitis B in the U.S. Hepatitis B, which is often spread through sexual contact and drug use, can be transmitted from mothers to infants during childbirth, and in infancy through contact with an infected person's body fluids,"
ACIP postponed votes on proposed changes to the universal newborn hepatitis B immunization schedule because confusion and disagreement over vote language required more time for consideration. Multiple versions of the proposed questions appeared within 72 hours, prompting requests for written review. The existing policy vaccinates all healthy newborns to prevent missed protections and to provide lifelong immunity, forming the cornerstone of efforts to eliminate hepatitis B in the United States. Hepatitis B transmits via sexual contact, drug use, and from mother to infant at birth; infant infection carries a much higher risk of chronic liver disease, cancer, cirrhosis, and death.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]