Tetanus vaccination for children: why vaccination is necessary
Tetanus is an acute infectious disease caused by the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani, which is usually found in soil, dust, and manure.
The pathogen spores usually enter the body through a wound. Tetanus produces toxins that interfere with muscle contractions, leading to the characteristic symptoms of the disease. The main symptoms of tetanus in humans are muscle cramps. They usually start in the jaw (trismus) and then move to the rest of the body. Spasms last several minutes and can be so severe that they cause bone fractures.
Other symptoms of tetanus:
- fever;
- sweating;
- headache;
- problems with swallowing;
- high blood pressure;
- cardiopalmus.
Symptoms usually appear 3-21 days after infection. Recovery may take several months. The patient is not contagious to others. About 10% of those infected die.
Side effects of vaccination
Doctors recommend approaching vaccination wisely and without haste.
Mandatory examination before any vaccination includes:
- temperature measurement;
- parent survey;
- study of the condition of the mucous membranes of the throat and lymph nodes.
Only after these manipulations will the pediatrician give permission for vaccination.
In addition to these measures, any mother can independently “prepare” the child. For this purpose, the baby is given age-appropriate antihistamines. They must be taken for three days, including the day of the vaccination itself. Many parents donate their child’s blood for analysis before each administration of drugs.
If any abnormalities have previously been observed (for example, a decrease in hemoglobin or neutrophils), then blood monitoring must be done. Despite safety precautions, children sometimes experience adverse reactions to Prevenar. If you look at the instructions for the drug, you will see an impressive list of “side effects”.
Vaccine Prevenar
Don’t be afraid of them right away and sign a waiver. Any pill has its own list of side effects. Even hematogen has contraindications and side effects, but here we are talking about vaccines that contain killed or neutralized viruses.
The Prevenar vaccine is considered quite painful, but the drug is approved for use even in premature infants. Adverse events that occur after an injection can be general or local.
General adverse events:
- changes in behavior . Many mothers complain that they “don’t recognize” their child after vaccination. Children are capricious, refuse to eat or sleep, and behave unusually. For example, an always calm baby turns into a hyperactive one for a couple of days. Such changes are the norm and occur in at least 1 case out of 10. You need to be patient and help the child get through a difficult period;
- vomiting or diarrhea;
- rise in temperature, hyperthermia . Moderate hyperthermia occurs in every tenth child after vaccination. Less commonly, the temperature rises above 39°C and requires taking antipyretics;
- serious reactions due to hypersensitivity (Quincke's edema, bronchospasm, etc.). Probability: at least 1 case in 10,000 drug administrations.
Local:
- compaction/swelling up to 7 cm in size (very common);
- redness of the injection site (very common):
- urticaria, dermatitis at the injection site (uncommon);
- itching in the injection area (uncommon).
Effect of tetanus vaccine
The only way to avoid infection is immunization with the tetanus vaccine. When and where do you get a tetanus shot? Four doses are recommended during childhood, followed by additional doses every 10 years. The tetanus vaccine for children under one year of age is given to the quadriceps muscle of the thigh, and less often to the deltoid muscle.
Vaccination is usually carried out according to the schedule:
- the first – at the age of two months;
- the second – four months;
- third – six months;
- the fourth - from fifteen to eighteen months.
Subsequent vaccinations should be carried out every ten years. For older children, adolescents and adults, the drug is injected into the deltoid muscle.
Effect of tetanus vaccine: The type of vaccination for this disease is called artificial active immunity. This type of immunity occurs when a dead or weakened pathogen in the body triggers an immune response—the production of antibodies. This means that if tetanus bacillus ever enters the body, the immune system will “recognize” it and respond quickly. After three doses of the vaccine, almost every person develops immunity.
Emergency prophylaxis of tetanus in adults is necessary when a person does not remember the date of his last immunization. In these cases, the vaccine should be given as soon as possible, preferably within 48 hours after the injury. If you stepped on a rusty nail, in the emergency room, in addition to treating the wound, they will definitely give you a tetanus injection.
Prevenar for COVID-19
August 19, 2020
Prevenar 13
Currently, due to the spread of COVID-19 infection, the risk of developing pneumococcal pneumonia or severe forms of pneumococcal infection in adults has increased significantly. Bacterial complications in COVID-19 are the main cause of severe disease and death. In addition, pneumococcal infection causes bacterial meningitis, otitis, sinusitis, laryngotracheitis, sepsis and leads to more than 40 thousand deaths in the world. This is the highest rate among all bacterial infections!
Vaccination with Prevenar 13 could prevent more than half of these deaths. New studies of its effectiveness once again prove that vaccination of adults prevents hospitalization for community-acquired pneumonia and avoids severe complications.
Pneumococcal infection is also the cause of morbidity for a significant part of the child population. Children under 2 years of age are especially vulnerable. Their body is not yet able to produce antibodies that can protect against this disease.
Pneumococci are transmitted from person to person by airborne droplets. The source of infection is sick people and healthy carriers. The most effective method of preventing pneumococcal infection today is vaccination.
The Prevenar 13 vaccine is administered once in adults; antibodies in the blood are formed within the first 2 weeks after vaccination and remain in the body for more than 20 years. For children, the drug is administered according to a schedule depending on age.
In Chelyabinsk, at the ENT Hearing Center clinic, you can receive vaccination against pneumococci and immediately the necessary examination before the procedure - a general blood test and examination by a doctor before vaccination.
Cost of the service: 4800 rubles. Before vaccination, an examination by an immunologist is necessary.
Cost of services
The reception is conducted by specialists
Mukhametzyanova Venera Gayasovna
allergist, immunologist, pediatrician, pulmonologist
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The injection site hurts after a tetanus shot
Side effects after tetanus vaccination:
- redness, swelling, and soreness around the injection site are observed in 25–85 percent of vaccinated people;
- fever, fatigue and muscle pain occur in less than 1% of people;
- Severe allergic reactions occur in one in 100,000 vaccinated people.
Like all medications, tetanus vaccines have side effects. The injection site hurts after a tetanus shot, there is a reaction around the injection area (redness, swelling), swelling of the entire shoulder - this means that the body “responds” to the injection of the vaccine.
More serious reactions to tetanus vaccines have been reported in Denmark: severe local edema, urticaria, arthralgia, kidney damage, anaphylactic shock. None of the cases of severe side effects resulted in death.
Patients who have had tetanus do not develop immunity to re-infection, which is usually characteristic of other infectious diseases. Therefore, everyone, without exception, should be vaccinated with tetanus toxoid.
Advantages and application experience
Clear advantages include the fact that this is the only vaccine that allows immunization of children under one year of age. Researchers note the effect of collective immunization - when a certain number of children are vaccinated, the total number of cases of the disease in a population in a limited area decreases. This means that the risks for those who have not received the vaccine are also reduced. The vaccine allows you to develop immunity to several serotypes of an infectious agent at once.
Prevenar13 is used in 90 countries. In Russia, this drug is included in the National Calendar of Preventive Vaccinations, which means that the vaccine is approved by the Ministry of Health, and some categories of the population can be given an injection under compulsory medical insurance. There is extensive world experience in using the vaccine, indicating isolated cases of side effects and high safety.
As for the combined administration of the Prevenar13 vaccine, it is allowed with any of the vaccines of the National Preventive Vaccination Calendar with the exception of BCG-M.
Tetanus vaccination: pros and cons
Children under seven years of age are vaccinated with a combined vaccine against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough. For adults and children over seven years of age, a combined tetanus and diphtheria vaccine is usually used.
The World Health Organization certifies that maternal and/or neonatal tetanus has been eliminated. A country requires at least two years with less than one infection per 1,000 births to be certified. The scale of a possible “tetanus epidemic” can be judged by the following figures: in 1998, 3,433 cases of tetanus in newborns were reported in Uganda, of which 2,403 died. Following a massive vaccination campaign, Uganda was certified as tetanus-free in 2011. Therefore, anyone who advocates refusing vaccination should be reminded of these numbers. Read about the main contraindications to vaccination on our website Dobrobut.com.
Related services: Vaccinations Appointment with a pediatrician
How many antibodies to coronavirus should there be after vaccination?
There is no definitive correct answer yet: research is in an active phase. To answer the question, I determined for myself that 40 units is the minimum value, and everything above it can be considered a satisfactory immune response. It is with 40 units of antibodies or more that a person can be a plasma donor, which also characterizes this result as acceptable.
RIA News
The reaction to the disease and vaccination is very individual. Someone suffers from Covid with a slight illness, or without noticing it at all, and the number of antibodies obtained in this case is measured in hundreds of units. Others have a hard time suffering from the disease, and the number of antibodies is measured in only tens. On average, the vaccine generates a greater immune response than the native virus. These observations mainly concern the Sputnik V vaccine (Gam-Covid-Vac). Someone turns out to be generally immune to the virus and does not detect antibodies either after the whole family nearby has been ill, or after vaccination. Such people and their reactions have yet to be studied in order to draw conclusions.
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What does Prevenar protect against?
Many parents do not see the point in vaccinating their child “against pneumonia.” However, this is not the only indication for the drug. What else does Prevenar protect against? This vaccine activates immunity against pneumococcal (Streptococcus pneumoniae) infection.
Pneumococci are bacteria of the streptococcus genus that cause a lot of dangerous diseases. Among them:
- pneumonia - inflammation of the lung tissue with damage to the alveoli;
- acute otitis media;
- purulent meningitis;
- endocarditis (damage to the inner lining of the heart);
- pleurisy (inflammation of the pleura - the surface layer of the lungs);
- arthritis.
In children, pneumococcal infection is usually a complication of some disease. Sometimes pneumococcal pneumonia is diagnosed when a child has suffered from acute respiratory viral infection or influenza. These bacteria often cause exacerbation of chronic bronchitis. Otolaryngologists also note the occurrence of otitis media caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae against the background of rhinitis.
The child is limping and complains that his leg hurts after Prevenar vaccination: normal or a cause for concern?
Children are very sensitive to their bodies.
They can often and for a long time look at a scratch or wound, and demand that adults “blow” or “compassion” on the sore spot. Increased interest in their bodies in children can lead to the fact that after vaccination the baby will pay attention to the injection site for some time.
Older children may unconsciously feign a limp in order to rally adults around them. You need to understand whether the child is really limping, or whether he just needs attention and care.
Doctors recommend observing him for two to three hours. If the game captivates the child and he stops limping, it means that the alarm was false and everything is in order. If the baby takes care of his leg all the time and carefully transfers his weight to it, then his complaints are justified.
In at least one case per hundred vaccinations given, swelling and induration cause temporary stiffness of movement. An analysis of parental reviews shows that lameness after Prevenar is a fairly common occurrence.
Lameness in a child after Prevenar is a predictable adverse reaction. In the first three days this is not a reason to panic. The child needs to be provided with rest and to avoid active games with the risk of falling on the affected limb.
Clothes should not press or rub the leg. Until complaints of pain stop, give painkillers according to the schedule (but not more than 3 days).
If lameness does not go away within three days, if the lump is more than 7-8 centimeters in diameter, a visit to the pediatrician is mandatory!
