Hepatitis B vaccination should be given to all children at birth

Professor Harry Janssen, director of the Toronto Centre for Liver Disease, said all children around the world should be given the hepatitis B vaccination at birth, because children are at risk from the virus “from the moment they are born” and not just when they reach puberty. The UK, France, Sweden, Norway and Italy only give the birth dose of the vaccine to children born to hepatitis B infected mothers, and Canada, Germany, Austria and Ireland have no birth dose vaccination schedule at all for hepatitis B.
More than 90% of babies and young infants that catch the virus develop a chronic infection, and up to 50% of young children between one and five years who are infected develop a chronic hepatitis B infection, compared to only 5-10% of those aged over 18.
Professor Janssen said: “The best way to protect all children from potential infection with the hepatitis B virus is with a vaccination with 24 hours of birth, as recommended by WHO. There is a misconception that we only need to offer older children vaccination in the years before they become sexually active, since sexual activity is one of the routes of transmission. However, all babies and young children face other risks of blood to blood transmission from the moment they are born. This can happen through household contacts, at school playing together with other children and in many other places.”
He was also critical of the UK’s decision in 2017 to offer the first hepatitis B vaccination to babies at eight weeks. He said “Why leave any babies exposed, even for eight weeks? If eventually all children will be offered this vaccine anyway in most developed countries, why don’t we end the lottery and ensure they are protected from birth, when potential infection has the worst impact?. Birth dose vaccination will reduce new cases of hepatitis B among children worldwide to near zero and remove the chance that any of them will become chronically infected. It is also much easier logistically to vaccinate children at birth because, after the first dose, the two follow-up vaccinations can be combined with other vaccines given in their first year, and this protection will usually last their lifetime. Why don’t we end the lottery and ensure they are protected from birth”
The World Health Organisation recommends that all infants receive their first dose of vaccine as soon as possible after birth, preferably within 24 hours.