CDC vaccine advisers’ new focus on hepatitis B tests in pregnancy is not enough, some doctors warn

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted last week to drop a recommendation that all infants be vaccinated at hepatitis B shortly after birth. Ben Gray/AP

Many medical organizations and frontline health care providers are grappling with a challenge they haven’t had to face in many years: how to protect newborns against hepatitis B.

Last week, a federal advisory panel reversed its longstanding recommendation for universal vaccination at birth. Instead, the panel decided to rely on a mother’s test results for hepatitis B during pregnancy. The babies of women who test positive should still be vaccinated shortly after birth, the vaccine advisers said, and if the test is negative, parents should make a decision with their health-care provider on whether or when to vaccin