Confusion over CDC panel's hepatitis B guidance could disrupt care for babies

Doctors say the controversial vote to not recommend the hepatitis B vaccine for all newborns is creating chaos and hurdles for parents.

Doctors, hospitals and public health departments are scrambling to ensure proper care for pregnant women and their babies following a controversial vote from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisers that reversed decades of standard medical practice giving newborns the hepatitis B vaccine.

“We don’t really know just yet how individual hospitals and clinicians will handle this,” said Dr. Brenna Hughes, interim chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. “It’s creating fear and distrust.”

Last Friday, the CDC's vaccine panel advised that only babies born to women who test positive for hepatitis B should get the first dose within 24 hours of delivery. The decision rolled back decades-long guidance that all newborns should be protected against the lifelong, incurable infection that can lead to liver disease and cancer.

Many babies in the U.S., however, are born to women who never have the chance to be tested.

A March of Dimes report published in November found that nearly a quarter of pregnant women aren’t under a doctor’s care during their first trimester, when most women are tested for hepatitis B.