Childhood immunisations

[jillydabrat]

I was on my GP’s new website today and, among other things, it allowed me to see all my childhood immunisations.

Now, when I was 13 I moved to Canada with my family, this was June, 1975.

Imagine to my surprise and worry that, according to my immunisation records, in October 1975 I was supposed to have 2nd boosters for Diptheria, Tetanus, Polio and Part 1 Vaccinations for Men. 1, Men C, Men W and Men Y.

I have had none of the above and I suppose now that I cannot have live vaccines I probably won’t be able to have the majority of them.

Do you think I have anything to worry about?

I know I was due to have my Tuberculosis jab the year I went to Canada but when we approached our GP over there we were told they only gave it to people in high risk positions.

[Applesnpears]

Hi

I think there are non live vaccines for most of what you've missed. Whether you need them now and how to proceed is something to discuss with your doctor.

[mhos61]

Hi Jilly,

I have been able to recently view my medical records online too. Like you, I was taken aback by my ‘childhood immunisation’ record. Just one example is the measles, mumps and rubella immunisation in August 1956. There was no such immunisation that far back.

However, at the top of the page it states that this is the ‘current national routine vaccination schedule. Please note that the routine national schedule has changed over recent years and not all the vaccines may have been available to this patient.’

Madness!

[jillydabrat in reply to mhos61]

Evening my lovely, my records state that my boosters and first course were due on my birthday, 27th October 1975. Makes you wonder why there isn’t outbreaks of these diseases because I am sure there is many people of a certain age that have not had these jabs.

[Simon96]

Hi Jill,

I received a series of childhood immunisations last year as part of the post transplant process, including Infanrix-IPV (for Diptheria, Tetanus, Polio and Whooping cough) and Menactra (for Meningococcal A, C, Y and W-135). Some others I cannot have yet.

If your doctor suggests you get vaccinated, the good news is that they were no big deal.

Also nice that they came in combo's so less injections.

Best wishes, Simon

[jillydabrat in reply to Simon96]

Thanks Simon, I have to go and have a full blood count done next week so I will take my record with me and ask about it. I always worried about my TB jab because TB is on the increase again. I will let you know what is said.

[MFBMT2011]

Like Simon I had to have a full set of childhood jabs 18 months after my stem cell transplant in 2011. However, I did not have one for measles at the time as my transplant team thought having live viruses was too risky with my compromised immune system and the risk of measles was low in most countries. As I knew that some transplant teams did include measles at that stage, this became a regular conversation topic at checkups as I like to travel. Roll on to late 2018 when I planned to go to Russia and the Baltic countries there was a significant rise in measles worldwide and in Europe, my team agreed that it was now appropriate so I had the MMR jab. As my 1950’s immunisation records had been transferred on line to join a host of travel related inoculations (also pre transplant) some of the dates were a bit odd but I was covered. The excellent travel nurse who did my MMR went through my records and added a number of travel related jabs to make sure I was covered.

The exception was Yellow Fever as this is seen as too risky for me. I was considering it for a while, as I have South America in my sights, but have now decided to pass as my age, 60’s, adds to the risk factor. So Southern Argentina and Chile will have to suffice there, and any yellow fever countries are out of reach.

Finally I have discussed antimalarial tablets, something i will need for some travel plans, as an option and been told by the transplant team that they are fine for me.

Chris

[Ebot]

I hadn’t thought about it much before but the reality is, I haven’t had most of those jabs - they simply didn’t exist!

I know I had the whooping cough vaccine - because my mother apparently told the lady at the grocery store, as I whooped at the checkout, I couldn’t have the disease since I’d been jabbed! Had it again as an adult (not to be recommended) as did my newborn (definitely not to be recommended). Like many of my generation I got measles, mumps, German measles etc. I’m just incredibly thankful my kids have access to these vaccines including the latest ones for meningitis, HPV etc.