EVERY child in Britain could be vaccinated against hepatitis B after a twentyfold increase in the number of people infected with the liver disease in recent years.

Leading liver doctors have told the Government that a nationwide vaccination scheme is needed and the Health Department has set up a committee to consider a scheme to inoculate all teenagers.

Hepatitis B is incurable, and can lead to liver cancer or cirrhosis, killing about a million people a year around the world. The vaccine prevents infection, but has been linked to side-effects including multiple sclerosis and paralysis.

Most European countries have a national vaccination programme, but with about 300 cases a year, Britain regarded that as unnecessary and too expensive. Now, however, the position is being reviewed after a Public Health Laboratory Service study suggested that 6,300 infected people had entered Britain in each of the past four years, raising fears that the disease could spread more widely.

Hepatitis B spreads in a similar way to HIV: through sex, injecting drugs or mother-to-baby transfer. About a third of infected people do not display symptoms of the virus, which include jaundice, fatigue and abdonimal pain. Up to a quarter of those with the chronic form will develop fatal diseases, but this can be prevented by drugs.

At present, only babies of infected mothers and some drug users are vaccinated in Britain, but a sub-committee of the Governments Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is considering extending that either to all children, or to children in cities with large immigrant populations. It is expected to report in the second half of this year. Professor Roger Williams, director of the Institute of Hepatology at University College London, said: "There's a pool of unrecognised hepatitis B infection that has been greatly swollen over the past three or four years. This is a concern because it will spread to others. The only way to protect people is by universal vaccination - and pretty well every liver doctor in the country agrees."

The Government wants 150,000 immigrants to settle in Britain every year, and plans to issue 175,000 work permits this year, as well as giving visas to 300,000 students. It has resisted calls for pre-immigration health tests, but is now reviewing the policy.