Babies on Board

                Babies tend to be a touchy subject for any debate. Generally, protective new mothers can go two ways with vaccinations. Either mothers want to protect their babies and get them vaccinated or they view vaccinations as dangerous and refuse them. Still, there are others who are uninformed about what doctors recommend or what state laws may require. My sister is due sometime next week, so questions about newborns and vaccinations have been running through my head. So what do vaccinations have to do with newborns?

                First, what shots are required at birth? Right after birth, vaccination against Hepatitis B is recommended. Besides that, shots tend to take a break until one or two months when the second dose is suggested. So what about Hepatitis B is so bad that the first thing doctors do is vaccinate against it?

                According to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia,

“Hepatitis B virus attacks the liver. Hepatitis B virus infections are known as the ‘silent epidemic’ because many infected people don't experience symptoms until decades later when they develop hepatitis (inflammation of the liver), cirrhosis (severe liver disease), or cancer of the liver (hepatocellular carcinoma). Every year in the United States about 3,000 people die from hepatitis soon after they are infected, and another 10,000 go on to develop long-term hepatitis, putting them at high-risk for cirrhosis and liver cancer.”

                Like I did, you may be wondering how newborns are supposed to be getting Hepatitis. That’s a blood transmitted disease from doing intravenous drugs or having unprotected sex, right? There’s a rationale for that too (also from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia).

“However, it is also possible to catch hepatitis B virus through more casual contact, such as sharing washcloths, toothbrushes or razors. In each of these cases, unseen amounts of blood can contain enough viral particles to cause infection. In addition, because many people who are infected don't know that they are infected, it is very hard to avoid the chance of getting infected with hepatitis B virus.”

                It’s hard to keep everything that ever touches your child immaculately clean. So a pre-emptive strike might counteract the risks your child will face throughout their life.

Sources:

http://www.chop.edu/service/vaccine-education-center/a-look-at-each-vaccine/hepatitis-b-vaccine.html