CDC vaccine advisory committee votes to remove universal recommendation for hepatitis B shot at birth
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. Megan Varner/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee voted 8-3 on Friday to remove the universal recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to make vaccine recommendations based on the mother’s testing status.
The recommendations state that if a mother tests negative for hepatitis B, parents should decide, with the guidance of their health care provider, whether the shot is right for their newborn — referred to as “individual-based decision-making,” according to a document with the ACIP voting language.
The vote includes that newborns who do not receive the hepatitis B birth dose get an initial dose no earlier than 2 months old.
The voting language document emphasized there is no change to the recommendation that infants born to women who test positive or have unknown status to be vaccinated.
The language document also included a footnote that parents and health care providers should consider whether the newborn faces risks, such as a hepatitis B-positive household member or frequent contact with people who have emigrated from areas where hepatitis B is common.
In a second vote, the ACIP voted 6-4, with one abstention, that parents of older children should talk to their doctor about hepatitis B antibody testing before considering subsequent hepatitis B vaccination.
The testing would determine whether an antibody threshold was achieved and should be covered by insurance.
The CDC acting director, Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, is expected to sign off on the change.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
While the rates of women diagnosed with breast cancer have increased, death rates have been declining, and five-year survival rates have risen.
Additionally, most breast cancer cases are being diagnosed in early stages before the disease has spread, making it easier to treat.
“It’s so exciting to be someone treating breast cancer because we can see that our treatments and improvements in treatments are actually making women live longer on average,” Dr. Julia McGuinness, an assistant professor of medicine within the division of hematology/oncology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, told ABC News.
Here’s a look at the progress made in the fight against breast cancer.
Declining death rates
Breast cancer death rates were relatively steady during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, but have been steadily declining since 1989, aside from a few years with upticks.
In 1975, there were 31.45 breast cancer deaths per 100,000 women, according to data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program under the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
By 2023, this had declined to 18.55 deaths per 100,000 women, the data shows.
McGuinness said that cancer being caught at earlier stages has led to more women receiving treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation sooner, which can reduce the chances of recurrence.
“It’s a very encouraging trend to see that even though more women are being diagnosed with breast cancer, on average, they’re living longer, and fewer women treated for early breast cancer will have their cancer recur,” she said.
Improving five-year survival rates
There have also been improvements in five-year relative survival percentages for breast cancer patients. This figure looks at the percentage of those who lived five years after they were diagnosed with or started treatment for a disease.
In 1975, the five-year relative survival percentage was 76.16%, according to data from the NCI’s SEER Program. In 2017, the latest year for which data is available, this improved to 93.2%.
“Our treatments have also improved dramatically and, even in the past decade, we’ve seen approvals for drugs that are making women with metastatic breast cancer live, on average, several years longer than they were even a decade ago,” McGuinness said.
These treatments include the introduction of anti-estrogen therapy several decades ago and more recent targeted therapies like immunotherapy, she said.
There have been “a lot of other new, exciting treatments — both in pill form and intravenous form — that have dramatically changed how we treat breast cancer at all stages, and also have prolonged the survival of women who have metastatic breast cancer,” McGuinness added.
Breast cancer cases being caught before spread
Recent data show that female breast cancer cases are being caught at early stages, before the disease has metastasized.
Between 2018 and 2022, two-thirds of female breast cancer cases were diagnosed at a localized stage, meaning the cancer was contained to the breast, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
About 25% of female breast cancer cases were found at the regional stage, meaning the cancer had spread to nearby lymph nodes, tissues, or organs, and 6% were found at a distant stage, meaning the cancer had spread to distant parts of the body, CDC data shows.
McGuinness said that screening for breast cancer has dramatically improved over the past four decades.
“Mammography screening programs were introduced in the 1970s and, since then, more women are engaged in screening mammograms, which improves our chances of catching breast cancer at an early stage that is more easily treatable with a lower chance of coming back,” she said.
She added that she is hopeful improvements will continue to be made so more cases are being caught at earlier stages, leading to improved survival rates and lower death rates.
“We’re constantly — even every month, even every week — moving the needle towards better outcomes,” McGuinness said. “I think the really beautiful thing about treating breast cancer is that we have so many options, and it really becomes a discussion with patients about the right options for them. I know that we’ll continue to improve outcomes with ongoing research.”
A woman runs along a palm tree-lined street in La Jolla as the sun sets on the horizon of the Pacific Ocean on October 23, 2025 in San Diego, California. Kevin Carter/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Women may need less exercise than men to gain similar protection against coronary heart disease, according to a new study published in Nature Cardiovascular Research.
The findings come from an observational study of more than 85,000 adults in the United Kingdom who were followed for about seven years. Researchers used data from a one-time “snapshot” — a weeklong period of wrist-worn fitness tracker measurements — to examine how physical activity relates to heart disease risk and death rates.
The study found that women who got around four hours of moderate exercise each week lowered their risk of coronary heart disease by about 30%. However, men needed nearly twice as much — about eight hours of similar activity — to achieve the same level of heart protection. Additionally, women who already had heart disease experienced a threefold decrease in the risk of death compared with men with similar medical histories, who needed nearly twice as much weekly exercise to achieve a similar reduction in the risk of dying from any cause.
Moderate-intensity exercise includes activities like brisk walking or gardening — enough to get the heart pumping but not to the point of exhaustion, according to Dr. Jennifer Miao, a board-certified cardiologist and fellow of the ABC News Medical Unit. More vigorous workouts such as running, swimming laps or hiking uphill push the body harder and lead to a greater rise in heart rate, she explained.
The American Heart Association recommends that adults get at least two-and-a-half hours per week of moderate-intensity physical activity, or one-and-a-half hours per week of vigorous activity, or a combination of both. But even when following those exercise recommendations, the study found that differences between the sexes emerged.
Across all groups, the study confirmed that being active at any level was associated with a lower risk of heart disease compared with leading a sedentary lifestyle, with active women experiencing a 5% greater reduction in risk than active men.
And the more exercise someone got, the lower their risk of heart disease and death, highlighting what experts refer to as a clear dose-response relationship between physical activity and heart health.
There are two possible reasons women may benefit more from physical activity than men, according to the study authors. One explanation could be hormones.
“Physiologically, circulating estrogen levels are much higher in females than in males, and estrogen can promote body fat loss during exercise,” Dr. Jiajin Chen, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in China, told ABC News.
Another possible reason has to do with muscle type. Men tend to have more “fast-twitch” muscles, which are great for quick, powerful movements. Women, on the other hand, usually have more “slow-twitch” muscles, which may help their bodies work a bit more efficiently during workouts.
“These physiological differences may partly explain the increased sensitivity to physical activity and greater cardiovascular benefit observed in females,” Chen said.
It’s also important to recognize how men and women can experience and be treated for coronary artery disease differently, Miao noted.
Women often develop the condition later in life, face a higher risk of death following a heart attack, and are less likely than men to undergo diagnostic procedures such as coronary angiography or receive standard medical care for coronary artery disease, she said.
Public health guidelines will benefit from acknowledging these sex-based differences to more effectively prevent cardiovascular disease, which is the world’s leading cause of death, the study authors suggest.
Miao agreed. She advised talking with your doctor before starting a new exercise routine, since physical activity recommendations depend on your fitness level, medical conditions, recent events like a stroke or heart attack, and overall mobility.
“Exercise routines should be personalized; it’s not a one-size-fits-all plan,” Miao said.
Dr. Cyrus Mowdawalla, MD, is a resident physician in internal medicine from Montefiore Medical Center and a contributing correspondent of the ABC News Medical Unit.
A sign for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s White Oak campus in Silver Spring, Maryland is seen on April 8, 2025. Maansi Srivastava/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The Food and Drug Administration said Monday it will remove the “black box” warning from hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products for menopause.
The change comes after two studies in the early 2000s claimed that there were major risks associated with HRT, including breast cancer. This led to the FDA placing its highest warning label on the drugs, prompting a significant decline in usage.
The public health agency estimates millions of women have avoided HRT out of fear of cancer or heart risks, based on an outdated analysis of data.
“This is, in my opinion, one of the greatest mistakes in modern medicine — the demonization of hormone replacement therapy,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said on Monday.
An expert panel formed at the FDA in recent months reviewed the latest scientific studies and recommended the removal of the warning, Makary explained.
“Hormone replacement therapy may improve the health outcomes of women at a population level more than any other intervention, arguably, with the exception of, say, antibiotics or vaccines,” Makary said.
The timing of when women initiate HRT “is an important nuance that has been lost” and “one of the design flaws” of the early 2000s studies Makary said.
Current understanding is that the benefits of HRT outweigh the potential risks when taken before age 60 or within 10 years of the onset of menopause.
“This is really the result of doctors waving a flag in the air for decades of women who have said, ‘Hey, we didn’t feel like we got the right information,'” Makary said.
Consumers will see a different label on the products in several months, he added.
There are still risks associated with HRT and women considering it should speak with their doctor as it requires a prescription.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
