Thursday, May 06, 1999
Vaccine requirement stays
Hepatitis B shot safe, say health pros
BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS — Children entering kindergarten or first grade this fall in Ohio must be vaccinated for hepatitis B de spite claims that the immunization is not needed and could be dangerous.
Faced with overwhelming support from medical groups, the House Health Retirement and Aging Committee voted Wednesday to keep the requirement, which lawmakers enacted last year without debate.
“We're delighted the legislature understood the importance of the vaccine,” said Dr. Elizabeth Ruppert, president of the Ohio chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Scientific information clearly supports the value and safety of this immunization.”
The panel's chairman, Rep. Dale Van Vyven, R-Sharonville, angered vaccine opponents by slipping an amendment requiring the three-dose hepatitis B inoculation into a hazardous-waste bill last year. He agreed to hold hearings this spring on a measure that would have suspended the law until the issue is settled.
During several weeks of hearings, vaccine opponents argued that parents aren't adequately notified of potential risks. They also contend the disease isn't a problem in Ohio.
Medical groups, though, contend the vaccine is safe and needed to thwart a potentially fatal disease that attacks the liver.
Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana are among 42 states that require the hepatitis B vaccine before children enter school.
Mr. Van Vyven created a furor by pushing the requirement at the behest of a lobbyist for SmithKline Beecham, a company that manufactures the hepatitis B vaccine. But during the course of hearings on the issue, he became more skeptical.
He pushed for an amendment Wednesday that would have eliminated the vaccine requirement and ordered the Ohio Department of Health to study the disease.
Even though 87 percent of children in Ohio already are fully immunized against hepatitis B by age 3, public health experts say the requirement is needed to catch the 13 percent who are not vaccinated.
The disease is transmitted by exposure to infected blood or bodily fluids and can be passed by infected mothers to their children.
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