Kids first?
Nearly 20 years afer the licensure of a vaccine against the hepatitis B virus, an estimated 300,000 U.S. residents still become infected with the potentially fatal liver virus every year. One major reason for the persistence of hepatitis B is that few adolescents and adults whose sexual and drug-using behavior places them in danger of infection are able to obtain the vaccine. Public health authorities and legislators have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to vaccinate low-risk but politically popular babies, while largely ignoring high-risk older siblings, parents, aunts, and uncles. Now this strategy, chosen in part for political reasons, is unwittingly fueling anti-vaccine efforts. The United States' poor use of the hepatitis B vaccine will surely cast a shadow over efforts to prevent HIV, a disease with remarkably similar transmission patterns.
Sharfstein
J
J
Department of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine, 91 East Concord Street, Room 4217, Boston, MA 02118, USA.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D017848:Blood-Borne Pathogens; D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000191:economics; D006291:Health Policy / Q000191:economics; D006292:Health Priorities; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D011057:Politics; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines