John Ellis had barely heard of hepatitis B when he was diagnosed with the potentially fatal disease at age 16. As he and his mother, a nurse, tried to digest the news, they were told that the scarring on his liver indicated that he had contracted the virus sometime when he was three or four.
Ellis, now 35, was born the year before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mandated that all newborns be vaccinated against the disease, a move that has reduced childhood hepatitis B by 99%, preventing about 500,000 infections and more than 90,000 deaths.
Now, a CDC advisory committee has released new recommendations rolling back that mandate — providing newborn doses only to babies born to mothers who test positive for hepatitis B — a move that could result in 480 preventable deaths and 1,400 hepatitis infections a year.
Ellis joins host Robin Young to share his story.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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