Vaccination against hepatitis B – back to the beginning?

[23 September 2003 - 10h05]
[mis à jour le 16 February 2010 à 10h06]

The consensus meeting held recently in Paris on vaccination against hepatitis B has recommended that universal vaccination for infants be reinstated. Which goes to show once again that the vaccine is indeed safe and …

...the extent to which France has been lagging behind in this respect. Organised jointly by the ANAES (the French National Health Accreditation and Evaluation Agency) and INSERM (the French National Health and Medical Research Institute), this meeting was an opportunity for an independent panel to draw up recommendations in line with those of the WHO which, it should be remembered, recommends that all infants are vaccinated.

In fact, France is the only developed country to have deviated from WHO standards in this respect. With the result that only one infant in three is now protected against the hepatitis B virus (or HBV). This virus also causes primary liver cancer which means, according to the WHO, that it is the only vaccine we have capable of preventing a form of cancer.

If the French Ministry of Health adheres to the panel’s recommendations, we will see a radical change in policy: “universal vaccination of all infants, a catch-up programme (…) aimed at children and adolescents, reinforcement of vaccination of at-risk individuals and accompanying measures (…) via information aimed at the general public and health professionals”. In other words, the complete opposite of the policy that has been in place up to now, which has attracted harsh comments from the international scientific community and has seen France singled out as a counter-example by the WHO.

What about the secondary effects of the vaccine, the risks and its possible connection with multiple sclerosis? As far as the panel is concerned, “the lack of actual data that might lead one to suspect a risk of serious secondary effects” is most definitely a key element in support of its recommendations. Given that 10% of liver transplants that take place in France are the result of the aftermath of HBV infection, and that according to the WHO “between 1981 and 1998 more than a billion doses of the anti-hepatitis B vaccine were used with an exceptional level of harmlessness and effectiveness”, one can fully understand their conclusion.

Source : ANAES, INSERM, 18 September 2003

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