pneumococcal vaccine (penevar) - did you vaccinate?

[Dhosonia]

I know this question should be posted in the vaccines forum but its bit of a ghostown and as vaccinations are also a huge parenting issue im having a go at posting here -

Did you vax your kids with this shot? its relatively new (2006) protects against 7 of the most common strains of bacteria out of 80, and has been probabbly the most reactogenic (other than mmr) out of all the childhood vax's/

Im not anti vax, but do believe in spacing the shots out and only giving whats necessary - this was not on the schedule prior to 06, is only recommended for children under 2, and after last vax with it left my ds with severe eczema.

No long term studies have been done and wyeth have already brought out prevenar 13 in the states which protects against more strains so its only a matter of time before p7 us removed and changed by p13.

Quite confused hes due his shot tmw

Any tips? Thanks

I did do this vaccination - the diseases it protects against are extremely serious. I am gernerally careful with vaccinations - I did not get MMR for either of my children (got snigles as far as possible). I would have this vaccination.

I am giving ds this vaccine. As orangepoo states, the diseases it protects against are extremely serious.

DD survived pneumococcal meningitis at 7 weeks - one week before she was due her first round of vaccinations. When she was offered P13 at age 1 I had no hesitancy whatsoever to give her the vaccination.

It's every parents personal choice, but I think that choice is often coloured by experiences. For us the real danger of pneumococcal diseases will always weigh heavier than the perceived or unknown risks of vaccinations... for others it will be different.

did anyone read this at any point, some good facts which i reasearched and varified - obviously very one sided but the more research ive done on it it just got me thinking the vax was just a massive money generator - it was recently withdrawn in poland , was put on hold in holland after 3 deaths and has be put on hold in india after more complications and is not on many european countries lists and even in the states where they go state by state it is compulsory in some states and not in others

www.vaccineinfo.net/immunization/vaccine/pneumococcal/prevnar.shtml

www.mothering.com/community/search.php?search=prevnar

Oricella are u in the states is p13 in the uk?

Scotland; they switched over here this summer I think. DD was given a separate call up because of her history

just checked the Scottish immunisation site and it seems PCV is still standard. The letter we got said that they were offering some children the P13.. so may not yet be the standard then

Children have been receiving Prevenar 13 in the UK since March/April 2010. Prevenar 7 is no longer given as part of the routine schedule.

Children at risk of pneumococcal disease have received Prevenar since 2001.

In Poland they withdrew the advert for Prevenar, not the vaccine itself, I understand. They withdrew a batch in Holland after 3 babies died whilst they investigated any possible link (the babies had received other vaccines too) - they didn't withdraw the vaccine from their entire vaccination schedule.

oricella - from a common sense point of view if p7 is already redundant - why vax with it? just using u as a sounding board! am i making sense? im thinking if p7 is no longer thought of as a good vaccine why give him the shot, if i do decide to give him it should i not wait for the p13 - with 6 more strains proteced against it at least takes on the serotype replacement problem that has occured with strains becoming resistant to antibiotics etc

Sidge - thanks for that - ok great if p13 is standard here - trying to look for links - but what of the thousands of kids vaxed with p7 since 06 its relatively quick for a turnaround in a vax?

P13 is standard here in the UK - more info here

Changing from P7 to P13 isn't really a turnaround, it's more of an 'improvement'. P13 obviously protects against more strains of invasive pneumococcal disease than P7 does/did.

Crikey Dhosonia - I really don't know; thing is - you really can't predict if and when you fall ill. AS happened with my DD, it was a week before she was due the PCV - I don't know if the strain she contracted was one of the six - and I don't know if vaccination a week earlier would have made a difference.. In our situation it felt like the right choice to take P13 when offered. If my hypotethical new baby would be offered P7 or PCV right now, I would probably give it rather than hold out for P13... protection against 7 strains is better than nothing.

FWIW - have been reading up on the Dutch cases. As Sidge said, the Netherlands continue to give the vaccine; the national health instute (RIVM) put a hold on a single batch of vaccine; they concluded in the end that there was no link between the vaccine and the 3 deaths.

I can't find anything more recent on this in Dutch than Feb 2010 - it doesn't seem to be a big talking point. Read the stories of some parents though - and it's very sad. It could have been the vaccination - it could not have been.. I tend to view it all as statistical spaghetti - most of the time you're fine, but it stinks when you draw the short draw - and unfortunately the short straw can come in the shape of the actual disease, or in the shape of side effects of the vaccination...

Confusing - this is usa based below - info but neverthless still relevant - thanks for response and i think the stastical spaghetti point is spot on - im thinking better to prevent esp if its now 13 strains - thx sidge for the link

According to the CDC there are 35 deaths in children under 5 in the US each year contributed to pneumococcal meningitis.
www.nvic.org/Vaccines-and-Dis...umococcal.aspx

So, in the past 8 years approximately 280 children have died of pneumococcal meningitis while VAERS (which is agreed to represent 10% of actual cases) has logged thousands of adverse reactions to the vaccine. For me the vaccine is scarier than meningitis.

www.vaccineriskawareness.com/Prevnar-Vaccination

the above bottom portion is a cut and paste from another link! not me saying the vaccine is far scarier! Whats weather like in bonny wee scotland ott snow?

Just to add - it's not just death you'd need to worry about; the way I understand it a large percentage of survivors experiences some level of damage.. this could vary from severe brain damage to minor motor skills issues.. We were lucky and DD seems to have no apparent after-effects, although she did have some issues with muscle tone for a while, but that seems to have rectified itself

Freezing up here by the way - but no worse than down south...

we did, both our dc (age 4 and 2) have been vaccinated fully with no problems. my worries of not having is as oricella says is worse. i'm sure there are more cases/studies of survivors than probs with the actual vax.

corn - did u vaccinate on time or did you stagger/delay any of the vacs?

Dhosonia i've just had a look at my 2006 baby red book pneumococcal were spaced 2 months apart.

my 2008 baby's imms page looks very different, hard to read as less of a list iykwim, looks like they were combined?

like i said both have had no problems with them. also have had mmr

hth

thx thats good to know that they had no reactions that the eldest is 4 and is fine and the prevenar and any of the others inc the mmr havent caused any issues! most of the research i have done on it is nearly always in the us where there are huge pro vax and anti vax groups, its not so much the case in the uk, i think in the uk press scares have been responsible for ppls reactions whereas in the us they are very much more self educated on the topic due to the requirements that all kids must be vaxed with everything otherwise they are not allowed to attend school etc i.e. compulsory vacs whereas we still have the choice in the uk to do it or not, thanks again

Yes. Did vaccinate.

With dd, she missed the vax because wasn't introduced at the time.

DS1 was one of the first wave to get it, and ds2 has had it too.

I'm not sure whether this is as a result of the vax, but while dd had about 7 or 8 ear infections in her first 2 years, neither ds1 or ds2 have had a single one. I did read that one of the side effects was a reduction in ear infections and it does seem to have possibly been the case in my 3.

Hi,

My healthy cousin had a Rubella vac at 16 and it paralysed her from the neck down, lost her sight and died a few months ago aged 39.

As you can imagine i've been through hell trying to decide what to do.

With DS, I decided not to vacinate but when he was 18 months my cat attacked him and I was worried about tetinus.
I rushed to Doc for advice and he said I had to get the Penevar as it was not seperate and it would have to be done within 72 hours. He really freaked me out re tetenus (I know im spelling this wrong). I did it.

I decided however, I would wait another year before getting the next shot as it doesn't matter how spaced out they are (within reason).

The fecking cat (as she was now becoming) attacked him again. Just under a year later. Again, I rushed to my same Doc and he obviously forgot all the shit he had told me the year before.

Told me it would make no difference. The shot would take too long to take effect. You need 5 shots to be completely immune and he would be 14 before he had had all 5. . I had a second opinion from another doctor who told me the same thing, it wasn't necessary and wouldn't make a difference in that situation.

I since found out that Doctors (and he is a head Doctor in that surgery) are given a bonus if they can get a certain percentage onto the vaccination programme. I was effectivley on it so it now didn't matter to him.

When my DD was 4 months old and I was at the hospital about her reflux, she spotted she hadn't started on Vaccs. She frightened the life out of me about the amount of deaths from preventable disease she had seen.

I rushed to the Doc and got my DS his 2nd shot of Prenevar and my 4 months old DD her first shot.

I did a bit more research as I was still unsure and I regret deeply ever putting that crap into my kids .

Im not sure now if I should have completed DS as he only needs one more and maybe his immune system is impaired with the previous vaccines anyway. Who knows.

Just wanted to mainly mention my cousin and how underhand the Doctor had been.
The vaccine damaged/dead children are swept under the carpet and they sing from the roof tops about the kids who die from these illnesses.

I feel vaccines are more about money than preventing deaths.