New vaccine will simplify process for young children
Vaxelis contains six vaccines at once, meaning fewer shots
Keeping track of childhood vaccination schedules can be a challenge. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children are immunized against 14 preventable diseases, which requires a battery of vaccinations from birth to age 3.
Those vaccines include hepatitis B; rotavirus; diphtheria, tetanus and pertissus (whooping cough); Haemophilus influenza B; pneumococcal; polio; meales, mumps and rubella; chickenpox; and hepatitis A.
But it’s not as simple as getting one shot. Hepatitis B requires three doses of vaccination — at birth, between 1-2 months, and again between 6-15 months. Pneumococcal is a four-dose vaccination. Polio requires three doses under the age of 15 months, and a fourth between the ages of 4-6.
These are just three examples, but they illustrate how complicated that schedule is.
However, thanks to an approval by the FDA at the end of 2018, the process is about to get a little easier.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new pediatric vaccine that immunizes children against six diseases, Forbes reports. Vaxelis can be given to children ages 6 weeks to 4 years old, and vaccinates against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B, and invasive haemophilus influenzae type B, or Hib. The vaccine is expected to be on the market in 2020. Forbes reports that with Vaxelis, a child would need three doses of the vaccine between the ages of 6 weeks and age 5, which will “significantly reduce” the number of shots for young children.
According to the CDC, the immunization schedule is “designed to protect infants and children early in life when they are most vulnerable and before they are exposed to potentially life-threatening diseases.”
And research shows that vaccines work. Diseases that once decimated populations are no longer common in America because of vaccinations, the CDC notes. But without vaccinations, it’s possible for those diseases to stage a comeback, especially given the global community we live in today.
The Vaxelis vaccine is a positive development in the world of vaccinations, reducing the number of shots needed for children while still providing the protection they need. And that’s a win-win.