The New Mexico Department of Health continues to strongly encourage vaccination against hepatitis B for newborns, recommending an initial dose of the vaccine within 24 hours of birth.

The move breaks from new federal vaccine guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which voted 8-3 Friday to end the long-standing recommendation that all babies get a dose of the vaccine on the day they’re born. All of the committee's members were removed and replaced by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic.

The state Health Department's recommendation in favor of the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, issued Monday, aligns with the official stances of many medical and public health

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