Five Frequently Asked Questions about Vaccination
1. Measles Vaccine and Egg Allergy
In the case of vaccination, The most difficult thing for Chinese parents is that when the baby goes to the community to get measles vaccine, the community doctor must confirm that the baby is not allergic to the whole egg before giving the injection. Measles vaccine usually suggests that the vaccination age is 8 months, but from the perspective of feeding, it is too early for the 8-month-old baby to eat whole eggs, and it should be postponed to 1 year old before eating whole eggs, otherwise it is easy to be allergic.
Strictly speaking, parents should not be so entangled with this matter.
The components of measles vaccines at home and abroad are extracted from egg embryos, and the preparation process of vaccines is not very different, with extremely small amounts of egg protein residues. However, the instructions of foreign measles vaccines read as follows: People who are severely allergic to egg protein are prohibited from using this vaccine.
Severe allergy here refers to life-threatening allergic reactions, that is to say, eating or coming into contact with egg protein will cause dyspnea.
However, it is usually not a serious allergic reaction and is not a contraindication for measles vaccination that parents test their babies with whole eggs at home. Therefore, it is not necessary to require whole eggs before vaccination.
Because this matter has caused too many parents to struggle, we have been popularizing science on the Internet and suggest not to test whether a baby under one year old is allergic to eggs by letting him eat whole eggs.
2. Injection is different from infusion
In addition, some people once wrote on Weibo that popular science injections and infusions may inject glass slag into veins, which may lead to pulmonary embolism or phlebitis, reminding patients to reduce unnecessary injections and infusions. Therefore, some parents asked me with great concern: “Is it not very dangerous for babies to take so many injections of vaccine?” ]
In fact, the general infusion is into the vein, the drug directly into the blood vessel; The vaccine will not be injected into the vein, but will be injected subcutaneously or intramuscularly to make the human body slowly produce antibodies to it.
The common side effects caused by such injection methods are only pain or swelling at the injection site, which will subside after a few days. There is no injury to veins, so parents need not worry about it.
3. Vaccination principles for live vaccines
Other vaccines are live attenuated vaccines, such as BCG vaccine against tuberculosis, vaccines against measles, rubella, mumps and chickenpox, as well as some Japanese encephalitis vaccines, oral poliomyelitis vaccines (sugar pills) and oral rotavirus vaccines, which are all live vaccines.
The principle of live vaccine vaccination is that the living and the living can be vaccinated on the same day, otherwise the interval will be one month.
There are no strict regulations and no taboos for inactivated vaccines.
4. BCG vaccine should be checked for antibody production in the body.
After BCG vaccination, you should go to check whether there is any antibody in the body. When checking, use tuberculin (PPD) for skin test, and the doctor will judge whether the baby has an immune response through the rash size of the skin test.
In the United States, babies are not vaccinated with BCG because the incidence of tuberculosis in the United States is relatively low and the strain has mutated over the years.
5. Free vaccination of common vaccines
The vaccines planned for immunization in different cities in China are different. For example, the vaccines paid by the government did not include hepatitis a in Beijing before, but now they do. But in other areas, there are others that do not include hepatitis a.
However, the common ones, such as hepatitis B vaccine, measles, rubella, mumps vaccine, meningococcal vaccine, DPT, poliomyelitis and BCG vaccine, are all the same and are all vaccines given free of charge by the state.
How to Choose the Second Type Vaccine
Usually, parents are most tangled with whether to play the second type of vaccine. The second type of vaccine is the vaccine that needs to be paid for by oneself, generally including pneumonia vaccine, Haemophilus influenzae vaccine (Hib), rotavirus vaccine, varicella vaccine, influenza vaccine, etc. Different countries, different regions, vaccination types and procedures are different.
For influenza vaccines
The United States recommends that babies over 6 months old can be vaccinated, and free of charge every year.
Generally, the dose for adults is 0.5 ml and that for children is 0.25 ml. For children who are vaccinated for the first time, they should be vaccinated twice with the dose of children, one injection on the same day and another injection 30 days later.
Pneumonia vaccine
One is the seven-valent combined pneumonia vaccine. This is a government-paid vaccine in the United States and many other countries. It can prevent most otitis media and pneumonia. At present, the pneumonia vaccine has been upgraded to 13-valent abroad and is still paid by the government.
There is also a 23-valent pneumonia vaccine in China. However, the preparation process belongs to polysaccharide vaccine, which is different from the seven-valent and thirteen-valent combined vaccines. It is only suitable for weak and sickly babies over two years old, the elderly over 65 years old, patients with chronic diseases with normal immune function and HIV-infected people with low immunity, but it is not suitable for healthy babies.
Polio vaccine
At present, there are two dosage forms in China: one is oral live vaccine (in the form of sugar pills), which is free of charge; One is an inactivated dead vaccine that needs to be injected at one’s own expense. Long ago, when there was no technology to make inactivated vaccines, everyone used oral live vaccines. With inactivated vaccines, foreign countries have eliminated oral administration. Why? Because one in 250,000 children will get polio after taking the vaccine orally.
However, China has not been eliminated yet, so Chinese parents can only choose oral administration if they want to spend no money, but at the same time they have to bear one in 250,000 risks.
If you choose a live oral vaccine, Usually, adverse reactions occur when taking sugar pills orally for the first time. If there is no problem afterwards, the risk of next occurrence is very low. Some parents did not know that oral live vaccines have risks at the beginning. After taking sugar pills once, they knew this situation and were worried again. They took their babies to have an injection, which can be replaced by an injection.
Inactivated polio vaccines are usually included in a vaccine called quintuple vaccine. This vaccine is a combination of DPT, Haemophilus influenzae and polio vaccines, which can reduce the number of injections given to babies. Usually for parents with financial strength, I would recommend them to take quintuple vaccine.
The price of quintuple seedlings will be relatively high, but the number of times to go to the health care station can be reduced by playing quintuple seedlings. The number of injections is less, and the baby suffers less.
Varicella vaccine
It is usually recommended for babies over 1 year old to play.
Varicella virus and adult herpes zoster virus are actually viruses, so patients with herpes zoster can easily pass the virus to their babies. In addition, babies with collective life will have a corresponding increase in the chances of getting chickenpox.
China’s rotavirus vaccine is different from that of foreign countries. There are two kinds of rotavirus vaccines abroad, both of which are taken orally. Usually, it is recommended to complete the vaccination before 8 months, and then there is no need to vaccinate again. However, the strains of vaccines in China are different, so it is recommended to vaccinate every year.
This article is taken from the book “Ji Lianmei Talk: Chinese Should Use Drugs This Way”, which is reprinted by the author’s authorized clove garden.