AEGiS-UPI: 2 Doctors in U.S. Agency Back Hepatitis B Vaccine

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1983. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

2 Doctors in U.S. Agency Back Hepatitis B Vaccine

United Press International - Friday, February 11, 1983

CHICAGO - A new hepatitis B vaccine made from blood plasma, which it is feared may contain an agent of the often-deadly acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, is safe and highly effective, two physicians from the Food and Drug Administration say.

Some health-care workers have refused to be vaccinated because some of the plasma is obtained from hepatitis B-positive male homosexuals, the primary victims of AIDS disease.

The cause of AIDS is not known, but there is concern that it may be caused by an agent that can be transmitted through blood or blood products.

The United States has 200,000 news cases of hepatitis B each year. Dr. Robert J. Gerety and Dr. Edward Tabor of the Federal agency, writing in the current Journal of the American Medical Association, called the vaccine highly purified and safe.

VACCINATION AND VACCINES; MEDICINE AND HEALTH; HEPATITIS
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