Mandatory hepa immunization for newborn urged

Health experts have drafted a resolution asking Congress to pass a law that would make it mandatory to immunize infants against hepatitis B within 12 hours after birth.

Dr. Lulu Bravo, executive director of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination, said the law is necessary because hepatitis B now affects more than eight million or 10 percent of Filipinos.

"If we are able to get the help of others to our cause, we can protect people against hepatitis B because (it) has a significant role in the development of liver cancer and liver cirrhosis," she said.

The hepatitis B virus can be transmitted through contaminated blood or blood products. Transmission can occur among injecting drug users or between sexual partners. A pregnant woman infected with hepatitis B can transmit the virus to her baby during birth.

The disease can be transmitted by healthy individuals who are chronic carriers of the virus.

Bravo said most hepatitis B carriers are ignorant of their condition because symptoms do not immediately manifest. "The chance of pregnant women passing on the virus to their offspring is as high as 20 to 30 percent," she said.

Among the health groups that signed the draft resolution are the Community Pediatric Association of the Philippines, Integrated Midwives Association of the Philippines, Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines, Philippine College of Physicians, Philippine Nurses Association, Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society Inc., and Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

The signing was done as part of the fifth Philippine National Immunization Conference last Friday.

The proposed law will supercede Republic Act 7846, the Hepatitis Vaccination Law, which mandates that pregnant women who are positive for hepatitis B be vaccinated to prevent them from infecting their babies.

Dr. Myrna Cabotaje, director of the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control under the Department of Health (DOH), the proposed scheme is expected to give birth to a generation of Filipinos free from hepatitis B.

"It is more practical in a sense that you prevent the infection early on in life. If you complete the three doses needed, it will offer immediate protection to the child," she said.

Each dose of hepatitis B vaccine costs P13 while the vaccines for polio, measles, diptheria and other diseases covered by the DOH’s expanded immunization program cost much lower.

Cabotaje said over the last four years, only around 40 percent of newborn infants were immunized against hepatitis B, way below the global target of at least 80 percent.

As in other government programs, the lack of funds is the biggest hindrance to the campaign against hepatitis B. Each year, the national government earmarks only P11 million for hepatitis B vaccine and P101 million is needed to ensure that all newborns are immunized.

Cabotaje also said many infants are delivered at home and this hampers efforts to immunize newborns against hepatitis B.

The National Statistics Office, in a previous survey, estimates that only 48 percent of Filipino babies are born in hospitals. The rest are born at home, depriving them of immediate immunization and other health care benefits.

"This is one of the operational problems of the DOH. But we hope to address this by coordinating with all sectors concerned," Cabotaje said.