Last year, the Trump administration ended its recommendation for a universal hepatitis B vaccine dose at birth. New research from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School suggests that change could lead to a jump in chronic hepatitis B infections among children.
The researchers built a model to compare the birth dose with two alternatives: vaccinating at two months, and having a shared decision-making conversation at the two-month visit. They found that moving to those practices could increase chronic infections acquired by age 20 by 19% or 83%, respectively.
The findings are based on a simulation rather than observed infection data, but they offer a quantitative estimate of the potential public health impact from the schedule change.