In a break with federal guidance, Illinois will continue to recommend that nearly all newborns receive hepatitis B vaccines, the state health department announced Wednesday.
The decision comes one day after the Illinois Department of Public Health Immunization Advisory Committee voted unanimously that Illinois should “reaffirm and maintain” the recommendation that nearly all babies be given the vaccine within 24 hours of birth, in order to help prevent serious liver damage that can be caused by hepatitis B. The state health department has endorsed that recommendation, the department announced Wednesday.
“Parents deserve clear, trustworthy, and science-based information when making decisions about their child’s health,” said Dr. Sameer Vohra, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, in a news release. “Despite recent federal changes, our recommendation for universal birth vaccination ensures every newborn in Illinois receives the strongest protection against this potentially deadly infection.”
Unlike Illinois, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is no longer recommending the hepatitis B shot for all newborns, instead saying it should be up to doctors and parents to decide whether to vaccinate newborns if infants’ mothers test negative for hepatitis B. Babies of mothers who test positive for hepatitis B or who aren’t tested would continue to receive the vaccine shortly after birth.
The federal government is also recommending that, when a family decides not to vaccinate a child at birth, that the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine be given to babies no earlier than 2 months of age.
The federal recommendations reflect a “rigorous review of the available evidence” said acting Director of the CDC and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill in a news release Tuesday. “We are restoring the balance of informed consent to parents whose newborns face little risk of contracting hepatitis B.”
Doctors and health care leaders, however, have widely criticized the federal government’s new guidance.
Hepatitis B can be especially severe in young children. Though most adults make a full recovery, newborns and babies who catch the virus during the first year of life have a 90% chance of developing chronic hepatitis B, which can lead to liver damage, liver failure, liver cancer or death, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
At their meeting Tuesday, doctors on Illinois’ vaccine advisory committee said that though pregnant women are typically tested for hepatitis B, some women with the illness may slip through the cracks. Babies can also catch hepatitis B, which spreads through bodily fluids, from other people, experts say.
From 2015 to 2024, the Chicago Department of Public Health identified 808 infants who were exposed to the illness. Over that time, the number of babies in Chicago identified as exposed each year decreased significantly, dropping from 114 in 2015 to 40 in 2024, according to the Department of Public Health.
Dr. Marielle Fricchione, chair of the Illinois Immunization Advisory Committee said during the group’s meeting Tuesday that vaccinating newborns against hepatitis B is not a “public health problem,” despite the federal government’s stance. Rather, she said she sees it as a successful public health policy.
“The committee determined that any changes to the current recommendation would do more harm than good,” Fricchione said in a news release Wednesday.
Historically, states typically followed the federal government’s lead on vaccine recommendations. But this year, Illinois and a number of other states have been adopting their own guidelines after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a longtime vaccine skeptic — fired and replaced all the members of the federal vaccine advisory committee.
Illinois also parted ways with the federal government’s new recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines after the federal vaccine advisory committee voted to no longer recommend the shots and instead leave it up to individuals whether to get them. Illinois continues to recommend all adults and many children get the shots.
Gov. JB Pritzker recently signed a bill into law codifying the process for the state to issue its own vaccine guidelines.
