Thursday, December 14, 2006

New Mothers: What is this 6 in 1 Vaccination for my Baby?

One of our readers enquired about the 6 in 1 Vaccination that is available for newborns. So I thought I will just let you know about it.

The Vaccination Schedule for Singapore can be found here

Based on this schedule, your child will receive:

Birth: BCG and Hepatitis (Done at the hospital)
1 mth: Hepatitis
3 mth: DTP + Polio (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis)
4 mth: DTP + Polio
5 mth: DTP + Polio
6 mth: Hepatitis

This completes the vaccinations for the first year.

What is this 5 in 1 vaccination?

The smart scientists came up with what is known as a 5 in 1 vaccine. The 5 in 1 basically combines DTaP + IPV + Hib (Haemophilus Influenzae type B) into one vaccination. You may notice that there is a slight difference in the annotations. The "a" in DTaP stands for acelluar as opposed to whole cell vaccine. Acellular means that only purified Bacterial Parts are used in the vaccine as opposed to using the whole Bacteria. Acellular vaccines have been shown to have less side effects than whole vaccines.

IPV stands for inactivated Polio Virus as opposed to the Oral Polio which is a live virus given by mouth. The inactivated Polio Virus is incorporated into the 5 in 1 vaccine.

Haemophilus Influenzae type B (Hib) is not included in the schedule but it is an important vaccine to give to baby. Before the introduction of Hib, 10 -15 babies died in Australia each year from this disease, and 20-40% of the survivors were left with permanent neurological damage. So it is good to protect baby against this.

So as you can see, the new 5 in 1 vaccine offers many advantages over the old vaccination scheme.

So what is the 6 in 1 vaccination?

The clever scientists again made life easier for parents and doctors by coming up with a 6 in 1 vaccine. The 6 in 1 is actually the 5 in 1 plus the Hepatitis vaccine.

So instead of the old schedule where the baby needs to be given 5 injections, now the baby only needs to be jabbed 3 times. With 6 in 1 the schedule becomes:

Birth: BCG and Hepatitis (Done at the Hospital)
2 mth: 6 in 1
4 mth: 6 in 1
6 mth: 6 in 1

Less in injections means less pain and less chances for side effects to occur.

Our clinic offers packages for the new 6 in 1 as well as for the 5 in 1 vaccine. Do write to or call 67850311 for more information.

More information about childhood vaccines can be found here

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