BMA Back Hepatitis B Routine Vaccination
What Is Hepatitis B?
Hepatitis B virus is transmitted by contact with blood or body fluids of an infected person in the same way as HIV. Hepatitis B can lead to cirrhosis of the liver, cancer and ultimately death. In England and Wales notifications of HBV increased 135 per cent, from 489 in 1992 to 1,151 in 2003.
The virus can be transmitted through contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person, such as from mother to child during birth.
It can also be spread from child to child through open wounds or saliva as a result of biting and sharing toys.
Why Should Children Receive A Hepatitis B Vaccine?
The British Medical Association believe that vaccinating children in the UK would save lives and be more cost effective than treating the liver failures and cancers that can be caused by the virus.
There are currently around one hundred and eighty thousand people in the UK, chronically infected with hepatitis B. Most of these are people who have entered the UK from countries with a high prevalence of hepatitis B. However, only those with the highest risk of infection, including babies born to mothers with hepatitis B are being immunised. Dr Sam Everington, Deputy Chairman of the BMA and an East London based GP, said the current policy of immunising only those at highest risk was failing. He believes hepatitis B rates have been rising and that the virus is "an enormous danger" being 50 to 100 times more infectious than HIV.
Do Other Countries Vaccinate Children Against Hepatitis B?
In 1997 the World Health Organization recommended that countries immunise children against hepatitis B.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "The UK has one of the lowest prevalences of chronic hepatitis B infection in the world and the incidence of acute hepatitis B remains relatively stable and low.
"Expert advice has been that we should seek to improve immunisation of groups most at risk of infection, such as babies born to mothers with hepatitis B, injecting drug users and gay and bisexual men, and this is what we have been doing.
"However, we do keep the UK's hepatitis B immunisation programme under ongoing review and a working group of our expert committee, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, is currently considering whether the current hepatitis B immunisation programme might need to be strengthened or expanded in future
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