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Social History of Medicine 1994 7(3):427-446; doi:10.1093/shm/7.3.427
© 1994 by Society for the Social History of Medicine
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What Shapes Vaccine Policy? The Case of Hepatitis B in the UK

JENNIFER STANTON*

* AIDS Social History Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT.

SUMMARY: Comparison of hepatitis B vaccine policy with other cases in the past is complicated by the restricted modes of transmission of this disease, which affects relatively few people in the UK. Still, considerations of cost, fear of contamination, divisions of opinion within the medical profession, and regional dispersal of authority are all factors—analysed for other vaccines—which help to explain the limited UK central policy on hepatitis B immunization observed through the 1980s. An important issue, in previous debates on vaccine policies, has been the conflict between public health interests and the rights of individuals to eschew health interventions imposed by the state. It is argued here that this question fed into hepatitis B vaccine policy in an oblique manner, via policy on screening for hepatitis B in the 1970s; minimal screening mainly of selected groups of health workers was favoured, maximizing individual rights. Changes to hepatitis B vaccine policy can be traced, linked with international policy, pharmaceutical company pressure, advances in vaccine technology, and questions of legal liability. The most accurate predictor for vaccine policy appears to have been screening policy. Will this apply to AIDS, which is epidemiologically similar to hepatitis B?

Keywords: vaccine policy; hepatitis B; individual rights; public health; screening


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