Doctors say Trump’s advice on hep B shot is wrong : NPR
Hepatitis B is a virus that attacks the liver and the disease has no healing. Since the United States began with universally vaccination vaccination that cases dropped by 99%.
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Sergii Iaremenko / Science Photo Library RF / Getty Images
It is unusual for presidents to give medical advice. But in a White House press briefing this week, President Trump questioned the wisdom of vaccination of all newborns against hepatitis B.
“There is no reason to give a baby who was almost born from hepatitis B[Vaccine”Adeclaretrump”thenIjedisattendezquebébée12years”[Vaccine”Trumpsaid”Kewouldsaywaituntilthebabyis12yearsold”[vaccin”adéclaréTrump”Alorsjediraisattendezquelebébéait12ans”[vaccine”Trumpsaid”SoIwouldsaywaituntilthebabyis12yearsold”
But the pediatricians say that this message is false.
“It would be extremely dangerous and it is a completely irresponsible suggestion,” said Dr. Andrew Pavia, professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Utah and specialist in pediatric and adult infectious diseases.
Hepatitis B is a virus that attacks the liver. The disease does not have a remedy and a chronic infection can lead to serious results such as liver cancer, cirrhosis and death. And the risks of these results are much higher for infected people as infants.
“About 25% of children who develop chronic B hepatitis will die from their infection,” said Pavia, who is also a spokesperson for the Society for Infectious Diseases in America.
Before the United States began to universally vaccinate newborns in 1991, some 18,000 children per year were infected before the age of 10. About half were infected with mother-child transmission, says Pavia. Giving newborns just after birth prevents the virus from setting up.
The other half of the children was infected elsewhere. President Trump said hepatitis B is sexually transmitted – which is a means of transmission – there is therefore no reason to give the vaccine to a baby. But Pavia says the risks for children are everywhere.
“There have been cases of infections in the daycare. There have been cases of infection in sports teams. There have been documented infections of shared toothbrushes and shared razors,” he said.
The virus is in blood, saliva, sperm and other body fluids, even tears, and it can live on surfaces up to seven days. A child with an injury that comes into contact with this surface – even days later – could be infected, explains Dr. Anita Patel, pediatrician and pediatric doctor in intensive care in Washington, DC
According to centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about half of people infected with hepatitis B do not know that they have the virus, but a patel says that they can always transmit the virus involuntarily.
“If you have a cut, this blood could potentially get on the infant,” said Patel. “And if this infant has a kind of rupture in their skin – as infants, frankly, frequently – they can then obtain hepatitis B,” explains Patel.
Dr. Su Wang says that she suspects that she was infected with hepatitis B as a child, through her grandparents. She says they were probably exposed thanks to their work as medical workers in Taiwan. Taiwan had very high levels of hepatitis B infection in adults before the country began a successful national vaccination program in the 80s.
“When I was born, they came to help, like many grandparents, and they lived with us,” said Wang. “They have become the main care providers for the first month of life. And this is most likely that I got the B.” “
Wang is now an internist and a researcher specializing in hepatitis at the Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey.
She says it is very important to give birth to birth. Since the vaccination of newborns has become a routine in the United States, cases dropped 99% among people 19 and under.
“When we started doing this as universal for all children, you saw this general protection that protected a whole generation of children,” said Wang.
