Dec. 8, 2025 – Hepatitis B vaccination is drawing renewed attention after a CDC advisory panel on Friday voted to no longer recommend the shot for all newborns. The call has drawn strong reaction from medical groups, who – citing recent shifts in the panel – are urging doctors and parents to rely on alternative guidance grounded in longstanding evidence. The decision isn't just about newborns – it raises broader questions about protection across all ages and why adult immunity still matters for public health.
Hepatitis B is a liver disease caused by a viral infection that can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer. Infection within the first year of life nearly always leads to chronic infection, and 1 in 4 children with chronic hepatitis B will die from the disease. It can be transmitted at birth and have no symptoms for years while remaining highly contagious. When vaccination is given within 24 hours of birth, it's highly effective at preventing newborn infection.
While the birth dose is the focus right now, the discussion underscores a larger issue: Hepatitis B can affect anyone, and understanding who is protected is important for communities and individuals alike. Read on to learn three things you should know about hepatitis B vaccination now.
Can babies still get the hepatitis B vaccine at birth?
Yes. Similar to the new COVID vaccination recommendations from the same panel, the new guidance is that parents should discuss the vaccine's risks and benefits with a doctor beforehand. The CDC expert panel – called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP – now says that if not given at birth, an initial dose should be given "no earlier" than 2 months of age. Numerous medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, immediately responded that they continue to recommend the first dose at birth for all babies.
Why does it matter what age someone is when they get vaccinated for hepatitis B?
Since hepatitis B is incurable, medical experts say protection from birth is a proven way to reduce risk. Even if a mother tests negative for the hepatitis B virus, a baby can still be exposed before they reach 2 months of age:
- By a caregiver who is unknowingly infected, since the virus can have no symptoms for long periods and even handling a baby while having an open cut could result in transmission
- By touching something that came into contact with the virus, since it can live for seven days on surfaces
- Also, there is a known 2% false negative rate for maternal screening.
"Delaying the first dose until age two months leaves the infant unprotected from hepatitis B. This could increase the chance that an infant could be infected from people in the household who may not know that they have hepatitis B infection," said Brenna Hughes, MD, MSc, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in Durham, North Carolina, and chair of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's Infectious Disease and Emerging Threats Committee. She will continue to recommend a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine to all of her patients, noting that it's been given for decades with no safety concerns.
There may be situations where it's medically acceptable to wait until the age of 2 months to start hepatitis B vaccination, and it's OK to ask your doctor about this, said Joseph Lim, MD, a professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. He is a co-author of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases' updated 2025 guidelines for diagnosing, treating, and preventing hepatitis B.
"Parents of newborns with unique health conditions or priorities at birth may reasonably consider deferral of HBV vaccination to a later age, such as 2 months or older," Lim said. "Most children should complete the three-step vaccination series as soon as possible, but parents can ask their clinician if there are medical reasons why a delay may be appropriate."
He said that if a parent asked for his guidance, he would acknowledge that "every parent has unique values and priorities that are important in determining whether they wish to have their child receive HBV vaccine or any childhood vaccine. My view is that the cumulative evidence over 30 years strongly support the safety and efficacy of HBV immunization at birth and that the benefit significantly outweighs associated risk."
Should I check my hep B protection status?
While this latest news has been focused on newborn vaccination, it's a great moment to highlight that the CDC continues to recommend that everyone ages 18 and older should get some bloodwork done at least once during adulthood to check for protection or susceptibility to hepatitis B. If you're able to look up your bloodwork history, you'd want to check for these tests: hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis B core antibody (HBcAb), and hepatitis B surface antibody (HBsAb).
As the director of Yale's Viral Hepatitis Program for the past two decades, Lim says that if you've done any of the following since being tested, talk to your doctor about repeat testing:
- Used intravenous or intranasal drugs
- Gotten tattoos or body piercings
- Had an accidental needlestick exposure
- Had any risky sexual contacts
If you were born before 1991, you should also check your medical records to see if you were immunized for hepatitis B. That's because 1991 is when the universal birth dose recommendation started. The CDC and the American Academy of Family Physicians recommend hepatitis B vaccination for everyone through age 59.
"At age 60 or older, vaccination is especially important for those who work in health care, who have diabetes, who have kidney or liver disease, or who are planning to travel to countries where hepatitis B is more common," said Jennifer Hamilton, MD, PhD, a family doctor in Philadelphia. "Because the infection can be spread through intercourse, vaccination is also important to people who are planning on new sexual partners."
