Colorado health officials continue to strongly recommend hepatitis B vaccines for all newborns within 24 hours of birth.

That advice from UCHealth experts and leaders at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment comes despite new anticipated guidelines from federal health officials and advisors, who are reviewing routine vaccinations for babies and promoting misinformation about life-saving immunizations for newborns and people of all ages.

Despite evidence showing that universal hepatitis B immunizations are safe, effective and prevent dangerous liver diseases later in life, an advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently voted to no longer recommend universal hepatitis B vaccines and instead, encouraged “shared decision making,” which likely will lead to many fewer newborns getting life-saving hepatitis B vaccines. The new federal advisors want parents and medical providers to discuss “vaccine benefits, vaccine risks and infection risks.”

That’s a dangerous policy that could harm the health of babies both in their early lives and for decades to come, Colorado health experts say.

“If babies contract hepatitis B either during birth or shortly after birth, there’s a much, much higher chance that they’ll have it for the rest of their lives — and as a chronic condition, which has the higher risk for liver cancer, cirrhosis, etc.,” said Dr. Anna Euser, who cares for patients at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital.

We talked with Euser about the new federal guidelines expected for hepatitis B vaccines for newborns. She helped answer common questions and misinformation about hepatitis B vaccines.

Why do so many medical experts disagree with the new federal hepatitis B newborn-vaccination recommendation?

Hepatitis B vaccines have proven to be safe and effective. Since the universal birth dose recommendation in 1991, the United States has seen a 99% decline in childhood hepatitis B infections.

Given that so many of those with hepatitis B don’t know they have it, the transmission risk to newborns from infected mothers is high. Gaps between a mother’s hepatitis B test and her baby’s birth bring risk of infection subsequent to the test, especially given the virus’s extreme transmissibility.

Even dried fluid on razors, toothbrushes and nail clippers can spread hepatitis B.

“The other big-picture health benefit of giving it to every baby as a universal vaccine is that we’re not missing somebody who might not have had prenatal care or contracted hepatitis B since they had their prenatal labs,” said Euser, who is also an associate professor of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz campus.

“We want to make sure that every baby is protected, so they have a much lower chance of hepatitis B becoming a chronic, lifelong condition,” Euser said.

She personally practices what she preaches for her patients.

“I did it for my kids,” Euser said. “I wanted them to be protected against anything we could possibly protect them from.”

Euser and other experts at UCHealth, University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment are part of an overwhelming majority of national medical experts who continue to strongly recommend universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns.

What is hepatitis B?

Hepatitis B, or hep B, as it’s also called, is a virus that attacks the liver. It’s transmitted via bodily fluids and is highly transmissible. Many who have chronic hepatitis B have no symptoms, and roughly half don’t know they have it. But newborns infected with hepatitis B at birth and infants infected in the first year of life have a 90% chance of developing chronic hepatitis B, and 25% of those who do will die from the disease. (In contrast, healthy adults who get infected have a roughly 90% chance of avoiding chronic infection.) In addition to cirrhosis and other liver problems, chronic hepatitis B brings a lifetime risk of liver cancer of 10% to 25%.

Why did the federal hepatitis B vaccine policy change?

Universal newborn hepatitis B vaccination has been standard in the United States since the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, recommended the hepatitis B vaccine in 1991.

This year, new federal officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC and the immunizations advisory committee are undermining faith in life-saving vaccines for people of all ages. Vaccine experts and medical providers, meanwhile, widely disagreed with the ACIP’s Dec. 5 decision to no longer recommend universal hepatitis B vaccines. Multiple state public health agencies, including Colorado’s, also continue to recommend hepatitis B vaccines for all newborns.

What impact does the CDC’s hepatitis B policy change actually have?

Aside from undermining confidence in a proven vaccine that has prevented untold suffering and thousands of deaths, the recommendation could lead to changes in private insurance coverage for the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. Private health insurers must cover vaccines recommended by the ACIP and adopted by the CDC without copays, deductibles or coinsurance. While major insurers have said they’ll stay the course, the rule change could impact coverage.

What should parents do if they have questions about hepatitis B vaccines?

Euser and other medical and public health experts strongly encourage parents to continue getting the hepatitis B vaccine for their babies. If pregnant women have any doubts, they should speak with their medical provider, who is eager to keep both parents and their babies as safe as possible.