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Sponsors
3 Co-sponsors
History
- Referred to health
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Authorizes the immunization against hepatitis B of minors capable of consent who are housed in a local or state correctional facility
In Senate Committee · Health · Sponsor Michelle Schimel
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to administering the hepatitis B immunization to minors housed in a state or local correctional facility
Purpose
To ensure that minors in correctional facilities have access to the Hepatitis B vaccine.
Summary of provisions
This bill creates a new section 2504-a in the public health law that would allow a health care practitioner to administer the hepatitis B vaccine to a person who resides in a state or local correctional facility and is under the age of 18 without the consent or knowledge of the parent or guardian of that person, if that person has the capacity to consent and consents to the immunization. This legislation defines "health care practitioner" and "capacity to consent" for the purposes of this section.
Existing law
Public Health Law section 2305 provides for exceptions to parental consent for treatment of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) to minors.
Justification
As noted above, public health law section 2305 provides for exceptions to parental consent for treatment of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) to minors because minors are often reluctant to seek parental consent, thereby disclosing to their parents that they have been sexually active. Without this exception, many STDs would go untreated. The same exception should apply to immunization against hepatitis B, because high-risk sexual behavior and intravenous drug use are recognized as the primary models of hepatitis B transmission.
The change proposed in this bill is specific to correctional settings where attempts to obtain parental consent have not yielded results and many adolescents are left unprotected from this communicable disease. In 2003 the Centers for Disease control issued a report that strongly recommended that "all juveniles who receive a medical evaluation in a correctional facility should be administered the hepatitis B vaccine, unless they have proof of completion of the vaccine series or serologic evidence of immunity to infection. The vaccine series should be started for those juveniles who have never been vaccinated, irrespective of their length of stay, and the series should be completed for those incompetently immunized."
To make a minor's immunization contingent on parental consent clearly hampers efforts to control the spread of the disease, which was previously recognized and addressed in State law for STDs. Allowing administration of hepatitis vaccine without parental consent is already law in several states.
Legislative history
S.5547 of 2007-2008
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.