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July 10, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Progress in the Hepatitis B Fight"

New York Times (www.nytimes.com) (07/09/02) P. D7

A study in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report notes that following the

introduction of a hepatitis B vaccine 20 years ago, new hepatitis

B virus infections in the United States have declined from over

200,000 annually to 80,000 a year.  The report points out that

the number of children infected each year has fallen

significantly as well.  Although the initial vaccination

recommendation in 1982 was limited to men who have sex with men,

injection drug users, and heterosexuals with multiple sex

partners, the guidelines were expanded in 1991 to include all

children and four years later the shots were recommended for all

11- and 12-year-olds who had not yet been vaccinated.  Along with

efforts to screen pregnant women, the rate of hepatitis B virus

transmission from mother to infant declined 75 percent in the

United States between 1987 and 2000.

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