General Principles in Infants/Children Immunization
- Because measles kills, every infant needs to be vaccinated against measles at the age of 9 months or as soon as possible after 9 months as part of the routine infant vaccination schedule. It is safe to vaccinate a sick child who is suffering from a minor illness (cough, cold, diarrhea, fever or malnutrition) or who has already been vaccinated against measles.
- If the vaccination schedule is interrupted, it is not necessary to restart. Instead, the schedule should be resumed using minimal intervals between doses to catch up as quickly as possible.
- Vaccine combinations (few exceptions), antibiotics, low-dose steroids (less than 20 mg per day), minor infections with low fever (below 38.5ยบ Celsius), diarrhea, malnutrition, kidney or liver disease, heart or lung disease, non-progressive encephalopathy, well controlled epilepsy or advanced age, are not contraindications to vaccination. Contrary to what the majority of doctors may think, vaccines against hepatitis B and tetanus can be applied in any period of the pregnancy.
- There are very few true contraindication and precaution conditions. Only two of these conditions are generally considered to be permanent: severe (anaphylactic) allergic reaction to a vaccine component or following a prior dose of a vaccine, and encephalopathy not due to another identifiable cause occurring within 7 days of pertussis vaccination.
- Only the diluent supplied by the manufacturer should be used to reconstitute a freeze-dried vaccine. A sterile needle and sterile syringe must be used for each vial for adding the diluent to the powder in a single vial or ampoule of freeze-dried vaccine.
- The only way to be completely safe from exposure to blood-borne diseases from injections, particularly hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is to use one sterile needle, one sterile syringe for each child.
Read more about this topic: Expanded Program On Immunization (Philippines)
Famous quotes containing the words general, principles, infants and/or children:
“What use Milton, a silly story
Of our lost general parents,
eaters of fruit?”
—Gary Snyder (b. 1930)
“It is a life-and-death conflict between all those grand, universal, man-respecting principles which we call by the comprehensive term democracy, and all those partial, person-respecting, class-favoring elements which we group together under that silver-slippered word aristocracy. If this war does not mean that, it means nothing.”
—Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921)
“For infants and toddlers learning and living are the same thing. If they feel secure, treasured, loved, their own energy and curiosity will bring them new understanding and new skills.”
—Amy Laura Dombro (20th century)
“Love is at the root of all healthy discipline. The desire to be loved is a powerful motivation for children to behave in ways that give their parents pleasure rather than displeasure. it may even be our own long-ago fear of losing our parents’ love that now sometimes makes us uneasy about setting and maintaining limits. We’re afraid we’ll lose the love of our children when we don’t let them have their way.”
—Fred Rogers (20th century)