Babies vaccinated for hepatitis B at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital may have been given an ineffective dose, after a fridge used to store the routine vaccines was discovered to be too warm.
The South Western Sydney Local Health District is contacting all mothers who gave birth at the hospital between November 29 and January 22.
![Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital is contacting all affected mothers.](/web/20170201222500im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/e/j/d/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu1r1j.png/1485815551266.jpg)
The same hospital was responsible for a catastrophic error in 2016 that led to the death of a baby boy and seriously injured a baby girl when nitrous oxide was given to the two newborns instead of oxygen in a resuscitation unit in June and July.
The hepatitis B vaccine is given to all newborns in line with the national vaccination program and should ideally be stored at temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees. Vaccines can be less effective if they are kept at a temperature too warm or too cold. Hepatitis B among babies is rare in Australia.
Six infants have been brought back to the hospital and offered an additional vaccination, the acting director of population health Dr Stephen Conaty said in a statement on Monday evening.
Dr Conaty assured the women affected that the potentially less effective dose is not harmful, but some babies may not have received the early protection against hepatitis B that effective vaccination offers.
A total of 282 women gave birth at the hospital over the period spanning just under two months.
In most cases, the mothers will need to take no action other than making sure their babies receive their remaining vaccinations on time, Dr Conaty said.
Three women have been contacted by the hospital and offered replacement doses of the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine after they received potentially ineffective doses between January 20-22.