Calling Musukebba Advice Please!

[pofacedandproud]

Sorry but I was hoping you might know something! DD had her first Prevnar at 16 months. It says on the Prevnar website that if first dose given between 12 and 24 months, then two jabs are needed, 2 months apart, but my surgery says that the DOH Green Book states that over 12 months she only needs one jab. they refuse to accept this advice may be outdated, and are not bothered that Prevnar's own website state 2 jabs are required. Do you happen to know which one is correct? Thanks!

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Hi pofaced: really sorry I missed this because of not logging on for a few days...

For immunocompetent children older than 12 months, only one dose is recommended. However if the child is immunosuppressed or has a spleen problem then a second dose is recommended after at least 2 months.

Do you have a link to your page of the Prevenar website? All I could find was a daft animated wheel that didn't really help!

Hi Musukebba thanks so much for getting back to me.
here is a link to Prevnar's website and dosing schedule. Interesting that you concur with my surgery but the Prevnar website suggests an extra dose - I'd rather leave it at one dose if it is enough though.

Do you have any opinions on whether a 5 year old who did not have Prevnar first time around should have it now, in light of the cases of bacterial pneumonia cases rising with SF? I know I have probably asked before but it is on my mind quite a bit at present! Thank you.

Hi pofaced

Ah yes that's the US pages for the vaccine, where the recommendations are different to the UK. In the US, the age cut-off for changing to only giving a single dose is 24 months. I'm not quite sure of the reasons for the difference, but it is probably because there are UK-based studies showing that after 13 months there is no real difference between the effect of one or two doses.

Re a five year-olds and vaccination: I am honesty not sure how effective Prevenar (the conjugated vaccine) is in the >5 year-olds. The incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease is really very low in this group which makes it very difficult to assess efficacy. Also, Prevenar is not particularly effective against the lung disease; which would be the main concern in swine flu infections. On the other hand, the PPV (purified polysaccharide vaccine) is supposed to be better at preventing lung disease and to my limited knowledge would be a better logical choice.

Unfortunately it's not really my area of expertise, but perhaps these points might be helpful...

Thankyou so much Musukebba, that is really very, very helpful.

this article was the one that got me thinking about Prevnar/Pneumovax with regards to SF...