Although teens and adults are at greatest risk for hepatitis B, babies and young children can get it, too, even if no one else in their household has the disease.
Before the vaccine was introduced in the United States in 1982, about 25,000 children under age 5 were diagnosed with the disease each year, and only 6,000 of them had gotten it from their mothers at birth. Although we don't know the source of all of these infections, we know that in some cases hepatitis B virus was spread person-to-person in the home or daycare setting.
Many people don't realize how serious hepatitis B is, confusing it with milder forms of the disease. Hepatitis B kills about 5,000 Americans and 1 million people worldwide each year.
It's important for children to get immunized early, because those who get the disease when they're young are much more likely to have chronic, long-term complications such as liver failure or liver cancer. And babies and young children who become chronically infected have a 25 percent chance of dying from those complications. The disease may sometimes be treated with medication and some patients do get better, but there's no cure.
Also, the younger you are when you receive this vaccine, the more effective it is. About 80 percent of adults 40 or over who receive the vaccine develop good immunity, but the rate for infants is close to 100 percent.
In some cases, parents elect to postpone this vaccine if they believe there's little or no chance their child will be exposed to the disease, since it's usually contracted from contaminated needles or unprotected sex. But putting the vaccine off until your child is older is risky, because most children have less and less contact with doctors as they get older and no longer get routine checkups.
Studies show that despite parents' best efforts, up to 40 percent of kids drop out of the healthcare system before their teens. Protecting your child when he's young will help to keep him safe now and later.