Universal Hepatitis A Vaccination in the United States: A Call for Action

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Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2008 Feb 27 [Epub ahead of print]

Universal Hepatitis A Vaccination in the United States: A Call for Action.

Lieberman JM, Word BM, s RJ, Dagan R, Marchant CD.

From the *University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, Irvine, CA;

†Texas Childrenʼs Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX;

‡Capital Outcomes Research, Inc. andria, VA; §Soroka University Medical

Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel; and ∥Boston Medical Center, Boston University

School of Medicine, Boston, MA.

Previous hepatitis A recommendations for the United States targeted vaccination

of at-risk individuals and children living in states and communities with

consistently elevated rates of hepatitis A. Recommendations now call for routine

hepatitis A vaccination of all children in the United States beginning at age 1

year (12-23 months). Currently, vaccination coverage rates for hepatitis A

remain below rates of other routine childhood vaccines. Achieving a national

immunization rate greater than 90% for the recommended 2 doses of hepatitis A

vaccine would lessen disease impact throughout society. Routine childhood

immunization against hepatitis A can be a highly effective strategy to reduce

infection in children and community transmission of the virus, and the

elimination of indigenous transmission of hepatitis A is an attainable goal.

PMID: 18316993 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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