As a Pediatrician and Board President of the Maricopa County Medical Society (MCMS), we want to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to evidence-based medicine and to the health and safety of every child we serve.

 

The Hepatitis B vaccine at birth is one of the most effective and safest tools we have to prevent chronic hepatitis B infection, liver failure, and death. Unlike adults, up to 90% of infants who contract acute hepatitis B will develop chronic infection, and approximately 25% of those children may ultimately die from cirrhosis or liver cancer.

 

Because hepatitis B is often transmitted perinatally and can also be spread through close contact or even from dried contaminated surfaces, the birth dose is a critical, proven intervention that protects infants before exposure can occur. Decades of data have demonstrated that the vaccine’s safety profile is exceptionally strong.

 

With the recent CDC changes, any movement away from the long-standing, evidence-based practice of universal hepatitis B vaccination at birth would place children at serious risk. Such a shift could increase hepatitis B infections and related deaths, and fuel vaccine hesitancy that undermines protection against other vaccine-preventable diseases.

 

MCMS stands firmly with the scientific community, with pediatricians, and with public health experts in supporting universal hepatitis B vaccination at birth and in upholding the principles of evidence-based care for all children.