"All Children May Be Given Hepatitis B Vaccination"
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Following a significant increase in cases
in recent years, leading liver doctors in Great Britain are urging the
government to deploy a national hepatitis B vaccination campaign targeting all
teenagers. Hepatitis B, which can lead to liver cancer or cirrhosis, is
incurable and kills nearly 1 million people around the world every year. The
physicians are recommending a vaccination program in reaction to a Public Health
Laboratory Service report which estimated that over 6,000 people infected with
hepatitis B have entered Britain during each of the last four years. Currently,
only infants of infected mothers and some drug addicts are vaccinated against
hepatitis B, but a government committee is considering expanding that effort to
include all children or children in cities with large immigrant populations.
Hepatitis B is easily spread through sex, dirty needles, or via mother-to-child,
and while about one-third of those who become infected show no outward symptoms,
up to one-quarter with chronic hepatitis B infection will develop fatal
conditions.
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MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION
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OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR
LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND
COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH
YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"