Three-fourths of Americans support hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, poll finds

News brief
Topics
Childhood Vaccines
Hepatitis
Baby grasping finger
Big Joe / iStock

Despite today’s approval by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to drop the decades-long universal birth-dose hepatitis B vaccine recommendation, 77% of Americans favor the vaccine for newborns, but only 35% favor giving it at birth and 51% by one month, according to a poll today from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Recommendations made by ACIP, whose members were handpicked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., need to be approved by the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who is a former deputy of Kennedy’s.

The survey asked, “The CDC recommends that all children receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth. If a newborn in your household were eligible to get the vaccine, how likely, if at all, would you be to recommend that person get a hepatitis B vaccine?” 

Among the 1,637 respondents, 77% indicate that they would be either very likely (52%) or somewhat likely (25%) to recommend the vaccine. Almost one-fourth (23%) say they would be unlikely to recommend the vaccine, split between “not too” (12%) and “not at all” likely (11%).

Support crossed party lines: 90% of self-identified Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, 65% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, and 71% of non-leaning independents recommended the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns.

Most recommend vaccine by 1 month of age

When those surveyed were asked the youngest age at which they would recommend the vaccine for a child in their household, 35% chose birth, 16% said one month (for a total of 51% by one month), 14% said age 4, 11% chose age 12, and 7% said 19 years old. (Those were the only options given.) Sixteen percent would not recommend the vaccine.

Forty percent of respondents correctly said the hepatitis B vaccine protects against liver disease, when asked to choose among a number of diseases and ailments, while 32% said they weren’t sure and 13% chose “none of the above.”

The poll was conducted November 17 to December 1, and its margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Study highlights hospital-based bacterial, fungal outbreaks during COVID pandemic

News brief
Topics
Antimicrobial Stewardship
Acinetobacter baumannii image
Dan Higgins, James Archer / CDC

An overview of hospital-based bacterial and fungal outbreaks worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the strain placed that was place on infection prevention and control (IPC) programs, researchers reported this week in the American Journal of Infection Control.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis of 25 studies conducted in university and tertiary hospitals in 13 countries, researchers from Koc University in Istanbul identified 619 outbreak-related cases of bacterial and fungal infections reported from January 2020 through March 2024. The authors note that while several studies have examined the rise in healthcare-associated infections during the pandemic, fewer have examined unexpected outbreaks attributable to specific bacterial and fungal pathogens.

“Existing reviews have mostly addressed antimicrobial resistance trends or secondary infections during the pandemic but have not examined outbreak dynamics or variations across settings and time periods,” they wrote.

Death rates higher during pandemic

Among the identified outbreaks, the most frequently reported pathogens were Acinetobacter baumannii, Candida auris, and Klebsiella pneumoniae, which combined accounted for 95% of all outbreak-related cases. The pooled case-fatality rates for the three pathogens (A baumannii, 59%; C auris, 52%; K pneumoniae, 48%) all exceeded values reported in pre-pandemic studies, the authors said. Approximately two-thirds of outbreak-related cases subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing contained multidrug-resistant (MDR) isolates.

Outbreaks were most frequently reported in hospitals in Brazil, Qatar, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States. The media duration of outbreaks was nearly six months. Commonly reported contributing factors included staff shortages, insufficient IPC training, and inconsistent environmental cleaning or disinfection practices.

“To prevent secondary hospital outbreaks of MDR in the future, IPC programs should be strengthened with increased staff awareness, sustainable environmental hygiene, and antimicrobial stewardship interventions,” the study authors wrote. “These findings should be incorporated into pandemic preparedness frameworks and implemented through multidisciplinary audits to ensure sustainability.”

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