With an 8-3 vote by the members of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the recommendation for hepatitis B immunization has been narrowed from vaccinating all newborns at birth to vaccinating only those whose mothers test positive, or were not tested, for the virus. For babies born to mothers who test negative, the decision on vaccination is to be made on an individual basis through the parents’ discussion with their health-care provider. The discussion should consider vaccine benefits, vaccine risks, and infection risk; but not given at birth, ACIP recommended that the initial dose be administered no earlier than two months of age.
The CDC release on the vote noted that the recommendation was based, at least in part, on presentations and briefings made to the committee the previous day. But while these included presentations both for and against the recommendation, the release cited only two presentations, both of which were for narrowing requirements: One stated that only 0.5% of pregnancies in the U.S. are to women who test positive for the hepatitis B surface antigen; the other noted the US’s universal recommendation of the hepatitis B vaccine birth dose is an outlier among developed countries with low hepatitis B prevalence (which is counter to a September 2025 CDC publication stating that birth-dose vaccination is recommended by the WHO with the majority of countries following that recommendation.)
What also was not included in the ACIP release was that immunization in infancy provides lifetime protection against hepatitis B. Hep B is highly infectious and can cause serious, potentially fatal health problems including liver cancer and cirrhosis – with infants being particularly vulnerable. The presentations did not include those with concerns over the lack of evidence supporting the change and the potential risks for children. Nor was it mentioned that prior to universal infant vaccination, 18,000 to 20,000 babies were born each year with Hep B, with 25% getting liver cancer later in life – now there are almost none.
With universal vaccination as the basis of a decades-long strategy to eliminate hepatitis B in the U.S., rates had decreased, but will, in all probability, rise again without it.
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- Per the WHO, the Ebola virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was declared over on December 1, 2025, after 42 days or two complete transmission cycles passed since the last Ebola patient tested negative for the virus. Although the outbreak was contained in 3 months, 64 cases and 45 deaths were attributed to this outbreak. However, more than 47,500 people were vaccinated against Ebola and cases were well isolated preventing further spread.
- 14 cases of Legionella possibly associated with visits to a gym in Orange County, Florida have been reported. An environmental assessment of the facility is underway.
- A WHO report highlighted an 88% drop in measles deaths from 2000 to 2024 and a 71% drop in cases over this same time period. Measles vaccination prevented an estimated 58.7 million deaths, accounting for more than 60% of all vaccine-prevented deaths worldwide. However, in the past year, cases are rising and it is estimated that 11 million cases and 95,000 deaths attributed to measles occurred in 2024.
- The CDC is reporting a fatal rabies case in a patient who received a transplanted kidney from a donor with undiagnosed rabies.
- The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recently met and discussed Hep B shots for newborn infants, which resulted in changes for US newborns. For more details, read our Public Health article “ACIP Narrows Birth-Dose Hep B Vaccine Recommendation from Universal to Selective.”
