Senate Bill S6745

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S6745

 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.