A CDC advisory panel voted Friday to postpone a vote on whether to delay infants’ first hepatitis B vaccine — temporarily alleviating health experts' fears.

An advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has postponed a vote on a proposed change to the hepatitis B vaccination schedule for infants, which would have delayed the first dose from within 24 hours of birth to a later point in infancy or childhood,

Since the hepatitis B vaccine was recommended for all babies at birth in 1991, new cases in the United States have declined significantly, especially among young people. The people at highest risk for contracting hepatitis B include health care workers, IV drug users and people having sex.

While a vote on the hepatitis B vaccine is underway comes a report on a medication that helps "keep [the virus] from reproducing and causing more liver damage."

The CDC currently says a timely administration of a hepatitis B vaccine is essential to help prevent transmission of the virus from mother to child at birth. While efforts to test for this virus during pregnancy have improved detection, cases can still be missed, or documentation may be inaccurate or incomplete.

Medical experts say vaccination is the best prevention method for hepatitis B, a liver infection that can be acute or chronic. The disease has no cure and can cause a variety of complications.