Medication Errors
In August 2006, the non-profit patient safety organization Institute for Safe Medication Practices described medication errors from the confusion between the two different formulations.
There were several mix-ups between DAPTACEL and ADACEL. Daptacel is for active immunization in infants and children 6 weeks to 6 years old. Adacel is indicated for active booster immunization as a single dose in persons 11 to 64 years old and is the first vaccine approved as a pertussis booster for adults. The component antigens in Adacel and Daptacel are the same, but the relative amounts are much greater with the infant vaccination. As such, these are easy to confuse.
In one clinic, 13 adults were vaccinated with Daptacel in error. At another clinic, seven adults received Daptacel instead of Adacel. None of the patients appeared to have experienced any unusual vaccine reactions despite the fact that the pediatric formulation contains greater amounts of the detoxified pertussis toxin and diphtheria toxoid. The similarities of the brand names, generic designations, and vaccine abbreviations (Tdap and DTaP) were felt to have contributed to the confusion.
The World Health Organization recommends a pentavalent vaccine, combining the DTP vaccine with vaccines against Haemophilus influenzae type B and hepatitis B. There is not yet sufficient evidence on how effective this pentavalent vaccine is in relation to the individual vaccines.
Read more about this topic: DPT Vaccine
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