No foundation for alarm about hepatitis B vaccine.

An alarm about the hepatitis B vaccination increasing the risk for developing MS was raised recently in the media, based on anecdotal reports from France. These reports have not been scientifically confirmed.

In fact, the French National Drug Surveillance Committee studied recipients of over 60 million doses of hepatitis B vaccine delivered between 1989 and 1997. The study found that this group had a lower frequency of neurological disease, including MS, than the general population.

These results conform to findings in many other studies around the world, including those conducted by the World Health Organization, the U.S. Institute of Medicine, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The hepatitis B virus can cause liver infection which may result in serious or fatal diseases, including cirrhosis and cancer. The virus is communicable through contact with blood and other body fluids of an infected person, or through household contacts. More than 350 million people, many of them children, may be carriers of the hepatitis B virus. Carriers are able to give it to others even though they are not actively sick themselves.

Hepatitis B infection can be prevented through vaccination. The CDC recommends that all children under the age of 18 get this vaccination. The vaccination is also recommended for health-workers, and for people who are sexually active.

Given the public concern over this issue, further studies of a possible association between the vaccine and demyelinating disease are underway at the CDC and in Europe. The Medical Advisory Board of the National MS Society finds no current evidence of a link between the hepatitis B vaccination and MS and supports wide, general use of the vaccine. However, the Board encourages individuals with MS to discuss the small general risks of any viral immunization with their physician.