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Parents confused over vaccine timetable

Parents have voiced their concern that mixed messages are being given out about when their children should be given the Hepatitis B vaccine.

As a rule, the jab has always been given to children free of charge when they are aged nine in year V of school. But privately, doctors are offering the immunisation in a paediatric dose to babies from as young as six months.

The huge age gap between what is being advised in childcare leaflets and what is being offered by private doctors has left many parents in a quandary.

Some are asking whether their children need the vaccination before the age of nine, or whether, if not, private doctors are taking the chance to make a fast buck by offering a vaccine which is not really deemed necessary at such a young age.

When asked, the health department said it WAS now offering the jab to babies aged six months. But when MaltaToday spoke to health centre medical staff, their reply was that the vaccine was only normally offered to youngsters in a high-risk group, such as having a family member who was Hep. B positive.

Another doctor stressed that if the parents bought the paediatric-dose of immunisation at a pharmacy and took it to a government health centre, staff would perform the jab free. Although the implication was that this would save parents the private doctor’s fee, it certainly didn’t give the impression that the jab came free.

Asked to comment, a spokesman for the health department said that the authorities had decided to drop the age for giving the Hepatitis B jab and a programme to do this was being put in place.

"This follows information that the vaccine gives much longer-lasting immunity then was first thought," the spokesman said.

He denied that expense had anything to do with the current rather confusing situation.

"Funding has nothing to do with it as the government would still spend that same amount if it were vaccinating all nine year olds or all one year olds," he said.

The spokesman said the authorities were also planning a catch-up programme for the in-betweens.