"Vaccines Your Child May Need"

Immunization Newsbriefs (c) Copyright Information Inc., Bethesda, MD. Brought to you by the National Network for Immunization Information (NNii). Visit NNii's new website at http://www.immunizationinfo.org.

 

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February 05, 2003

 

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

 

"Vaccines Your Child May Need"

Child (www.child.com) (02/03) P. 22; Gordon, Sandra

 

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia chief of infectious diseases Dr. Paul A. Offit recommends considering five vaccines for children beyond the 11 that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends--particularly if the children in question are traveling outside the United States--and says parents should ask pediatricians about them.  Children over the age of two years without spleens or complement proteins, who travel to sub-Saharan Africa between December and June, or who attend sleep-away camp should be immunized against meningitis.  Children over that age living in Washington, Alaska, Utah, Arizona, South Dakota, California, Oregon, Idaho, Oklahoma, New Mexico, or Nevada, and children traveling to the Caribbean or nations other than New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Canada, or those in Scandinavia or Western Europe, should get vaccinated against hepatitis A, as the risk of the illness is higher in those areas.  Children older than five months traveling to Mexico or nations with poor sewage systems should be vaccinated against typhoid.  Children who have contact with a potentially rabid animal should get the rabies vaccine.  And children living with someone infected with tuberculosis who cannot or does not take the antibiotics used to treat it should be vaccinated against that disease.

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ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.