WHO flags issues with US vaccine trial

GENEVA:

The World Health Organization on Friday voiced serious concerns over a planned US-funded hepatitis B vaccine trial on newborn babies in junta-run Guinea-Bissau, questioning it on scientific and ethical grounds.

The WHO insisted in a statement that the existing hepatitis B birth dose vaccine was an "effective and essential" public health intervention, with a proven record.

The agency's latest statement comes two months after an advisory pan-el — appointed by US health chief Robert F Kennedy Jr — voted to stop recommending that all newborns in the United States receive a hepatitis B vaccine. Kennedy has long been a vocal sceptic of vaccines, and his department says the Guinea-Bissau study seeks to "answer questions about the broader health effects" of the vaccine and "fill existing evidence gaps".

The US move to end the decades-old recommendation is the panel's latest contentious about-face concerning vaccines. Defending the existing vaccine, the WHO said Friday: "It prevents life-threatening liver disease by stopping mother-to-child transmission at birth."