Healthcare Providers Prepare to Continue Following Guidance from AAP Regarding Hep B Vaccine
Many healthcare providers are preparing to continue following guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), rejecting ACIP’s recommendations about the hepatitis B vaccine. CIDRAP has the news.
HPN reported on the panel’s decision to overturn a recommendation to “vaccinate all babies against hepatits B at birth.” The panel instead voted that “women whose blood tests show they aren’t infected with hepatitis B should discuss the issue with their doctors.”
Larry K. Kociolek, a doctor at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, is preparing to follow Chicago and Illinois health department guidance in recommending the vaccine be administered to all newborns within 24 hours of delivery. He says that ACIP’s recommendations “were made without any new research suggesting that the current vaccine schedule is flawed in terms of its safety or effectiveness.” Ravi Jhaveri, head of infectious diseases at the hospital, says the new recommendation from ACIP “assumes that we can accurately predict who has infection and who will be exposed in the future; we cannot.”
Other experts emphasize that pediatricians “should be willing to listen to [parents] and provide thoughtful answers” if they are confused about vaccine recommendations.
The BlueCross BlueShield Association and AHIP have also stated that “private insurance plans will continue to cover the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccines.” HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. warned health providers not to deviate from the CDC’s recommendations, but the process to change the laws is time-consuming.
