The federal vaccine panel appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is likely to decide on Thursday that the shots should be delayed for infants whose mothers test negative for the virus.

As hepatitis B research progresses, achieving higher functional cure rates is becoming more feasible. It is vital that policymakers set clear elimination targets for hepatitis B, coordinate efforts, enhance surveillance, and create supportive regulatory environments to support this.

The best way to prevent hepatitis B infection is vaccination. The vaccines are highly effective at preventing infection in infants and for long-term protection into adulthood.

The virus is found in blood, saliva, semen and other bodily fluids, even tears, and it can live on surfaces for up to seven days. A child with a wound who comes into contact with that surface — even days later — could become infected, says Anita Patel, a pediatrician and pediatric critical care physician in Washington, D.C.

As RFK Jr.'s new vaccine panel ponders changing the hepatitis B vaccination schedule, some doctors recall past patients, including children, who died painful deaths before there was a vaccine.

As vaccine policy uncertainty reaches a new level in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC’s) team of vaccine advisors is set to deliberate later this week on childhood im | The CDC's vaccine advisory committee will meet later this week with a newly promoted chairman in outspoken mRNA critic Kirk Milhoan,