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New Method to Reduce Hepatitis B Rate in Newborns
Chinese scientists have developed a new immunization method that can prevent most newborns from being infected by their Hepatitis B virus carrying mothers.
The new method, developed by a group of scientists from the Children's Hospital attached to the Fudan University Medical School, highlights active immunization.
Under the new method, a hepatitis B infected mother and her embryo are injected with a special antibody to reduce the amount of the hepatitis B virus in the mother. The newborn baby then receives two immunoglobulin injections, one following birth and the other when the baby reaches the age of two weeks. Finally, the baby receives a hepatitis B vaccine at the age of one month.
Under this method, more than 90 percent of newborns with hepatitis B infected mothers are not born with the virus, according to the scientists.
Conventionally, babies are not inoculated against the virus until they are born. This method only prevents 70 percent of newborns from being infected by their mothers.
China has a high rate of hepatitis B infection, with approximately two million babies born with the virus each year.
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