Vaccinations

[FromDurbs]

This might be my most detailed question yet.  I am in Australia already and decided to get my children to get HPV vaccines, which in South Africa is only recommended for girls, but in Australia is given to both boys and girls.  Taking them the nurse noticed that my children never had measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations according to her reading of the South African government Road to Health cards.  And she is correct.  On the card is written "Measles 1".  She claims it is only measles, since that is what is written there.  I was under the impression kids get measles, mumps and rubella, not just measles.  Does anyone know?  And if it does include mumps and rubella how do I convince her?  Now she wants to give the kids mumps and rubela vaccinations.   At the moment she was just going to vaccinate them anyway - guess it wont harm ?  

At the bottom of the one card there is a hand written note saying:  "Trimovax (Masels Duitse Masels Pampoentjies)", but that is not linked to any specific date or other entry.

[TamTam]

Hi @FromDurbs

 

I had a quick look myself and it seems mumps and rubella are not included. I had to get my son an "extra vaccination"' when we moved over because the Dutch vaccination schedule (he was born there) is slightly different to Aus. As a result there was some ''duplication'' and the nurse explained to me it wouldn't harm him.

[RedPanda]

Well, you can always have their blood tested. I recently had full bloodworks done for something else, and they tested for immunity against all the childhood bugs. So the one option is to have their blood tested to see what they did and didn't get. Otherwise, is it really that bad to double immunise?

Btw I got the HPV vaccines and at the same time my husband's parents decided he should also get it. So from that we can say, no harm done to boys. It's a vaccine against a virus, it's not like it's hormone based. And the more research they do, the more cancers they are linking HPV to. So it might be worth it.

If you can, do it.

[Avatar]

It is worth getting a blood test to check for immunity, if your doctor is willing, and even for adults in families too. My doctor allowed me to have a blood test for some of the common illnesses, and she found that I had never been immunised against Hepatitis A and B, so I have now had that done (and at the time there was a shortage of Hepatitis B vaccine so I felt quite grateful), and I also got the whooping cough combination vaccine, as well as meningococcal. My doctor didn't agree to allow me to have the HPV vaccine, but my daughter did have it.

[Sassyninja]

You could do a catch up program when youre here, so rather wait and see what else they need when theyre here?

[Tntaglia]

The first vaccine given in SA at 9 months is measles only, this is then followed up with MMR at 18 months and 4 years. So if you only had measles 1 then it didn't include the other two. Even if it did somehow include them, they'll only have had the first one then, not the booster at 4 years, so I'd get the extra vaccine just to be sure. Any of those diseases as an adult is hell, and if you have girls it's much safer to have them vaccinated against rubella in case of future pregnancy.