An Open Letter to Gavi: Hepatitis B Birth Dose Vaccine Can’t Wait

CDA Foundation; Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination, Hepatitis Australia; The Hepatitis Fund; Hepatitis B Foundation, Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign; PATH, TREAT Asia/amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, Union for International Cancer Control; World Hepatitis Alliance

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Summary

Each year over a quarter of a million children acquire chronic hepatitis B at birth. Tens of thousands will go on to lose their lives prematurely from liver cancer or other forms of liver disease. These deaths could have been prevented if they had received the hepatitis B birth dose vaccine.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is an international partnership created to improve access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries. Their work has been pivotal in preventing many diseases. From 2000–21, they estimate that their programmes averted over 15 million deaths. By supporting hepatitis B birth dose vaccination, they could avert even more.