Vaccinations And Your Baby: Hepatitis B
Vaccinations are a miracle of modern science. Thanks to these injections, diseases that used to be deadly in the past have almost completely disappeared today. Upon the birth of a new baby, most hospitals give the new parents a booklet that contains a vaccination schedule that the doctor can initial as each shot is given. Looking at the list of the various vaccinations, many new parents do not understand what the vaccinations are for. To understand the necessity for a vaccination, you must first understand the disease that it fends off.
The first vaccination that your new baby should receive is labeled HepB. This abbreviation stands for Hepatitis B, a serious virus that attacks the liver. This disease can result in lifelong liver infections, cirrhosis (scarring of the liver), liver failure, and death. The virus is passed when the blood of an infected person enters the blood of a person who is not infected. The disease can be transmitted from an infected mother to her infant during childbirth. It is also commonly found in the infants of immigrants who came from areas that have high rates of Hepatitis B.
Most obstetricians recommend that expectant mothers should have a Hepatitis B test to determine if they have the disease, as many infected people are not aware that they have the virus. The result of this test can determine when your baby will need his first vaccination of HepB. For infants that mothers have tested positive or the test results were inconclusive, the vaccination is given within twelve hours of the child
