The bacteria can cause bronchitis, meningitis and pneumonia. Some other countries already immunise all youngsters against hepatitis B but in Britain there has so far been insufficient evidence that the number of people affected is high enough to justify jabs for all children. Now the Public Health Laboratory Service is setting up a study to examine carriage rates of hepatitis B among very young children in inner-city areas. The vast majority of children become infected with chickenpox and suffer only mild symptoms. However, the disease can be more serious in adults, particularly pregnant women.
Many affected babies die.
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