Health panel calls for early vaccinations for hepatitis A
10/26/2005
ATLANTA - All children between 1 and 2 should be vaccinated against the hepatitis A virus, a national vaccine panel recommended yesterday.
About 25 percent of hepatitis A cases occur in children, but many adults get the disease from infected youngsters, health officials said. The virus, which attacks the liver and can cause fever, diarrhea and jaundice, is sometimes caused by eating food contaminated with feces.
Hepatitis A is rarely fatal. But in 2003, nearly 600 people were sickened by hepatitis and three died in the nation's largest outbreak.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which helps set federal vaccination guidelines, voted unanimously to recommend that a two-dose vaccination be given to young children.
