(Recasts paragraph 1, adds subhead on new recommendation by vaccine committee)

By Nancy Lapid

A U.S. vaccine advisory panel on Friday

scrapped

its long-standing recommendation that all infants receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, handing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a major policy victory that disease experts warn could erode decades of public health progress.

Here's what you need to know about the hepatitis B virus (HBV), available vaccines and the new recommendations.

WHAT IS HEPATITIS B?

Hepatitis B attacks the liver and is the leading cause of liver cancer worldwide. Many infected people do not have symptoms and do not realize they are infected. In most adults who acquire the virus, the infection resolves on its own. But it becomes chronic in more than 90% of infa

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