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Parents warned on the importance of immunising on time

Delaying infant immunisations can place babies and young children at unnecessary risk, Latrobe City Council’s health services manager, Andrew Mackintosh has warned.

By Latrobe City Council - 24th October 2006 - Back to News

Mr Mackintosh issued the warning as his closing comments for Immunisation Month. His warning follows concern by council’s maternal and child health nurses that some parents delayed infant immunisations, as they were unaware of the importance of these immunisations being received at the correct time.

"During the first four years of life, it seems that children have an amazing array of immunisations. Some early in life, like hepatitis B commencing at birth; others in clusters such as diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough (pertussis), polio and pneumococcal vaccine given at two, four and six months, with hib and hepatitis B at two, four and twelve months," Mr Mackintosh said.

"There are other vaccines such as measles, mumps, rubella, meningococcal C (12 months) and chicken pox (18 months) that are given, with planned booster doses of diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough (pertussis), polio, measles, mumps and rubella given at four years of age.

"These immunisations are given at specific times to give maximum protection at the time of greatest risk," Mr Mackintosh explained.

"Because a baby's immune system is not yet mature, it requires more doses of a vaccine to produce a good and long-lasting response. In the first months of life, a baby is protected from most infections by antibodies from his or her mother which were transferred to the baby during pregnancy. However, this protection is only temporary and immunisations are needed to protect the child as he or she develops," he said.

"Although all vaccines are different, they all work in a similar way. That is, when someone is injected with a vaccine, their body produces an immune response in the same way it would following exposure to the disease, but without the serious symptoms or complications of contracting the actual disease. Generally this takes several weeks to work, which means that protection from an infection will not occur immediately after immunisation.

"All factors, from the immune response time for immunisations to become effective, the number of doses required to produce an adequate response, the waning of a mother's protective antibodies, to the time the child is most susceptible to contracting a certain disease have been taken into consideration when planning the immunisation schedule. So it is very important that this schedule is stuck to rigidly," Mr Mackintosh said.

Mr Mackintosh said parents considering postponing their child's immunisation should speak to their doctor, clinic nurse, or their council maternal and child health nurse. "There are very few good reasons for any such delay, and any delay may reduce the protection afforded by immunisations and put your child at unnecessary risk," Mr Mackintosh concluded.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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