Hi
I've been offered the pneumococcal vaccination by my GP practice as I'm in the "at risk" group (aren't we all) and was wondering if any other members of the forum have been offered the injection and if they have experienced any side effects?
Kind regards
Christine
Hi Christine,
I had this jab last winter along with usual flu jab. No adverse reaction whatsoever. Maybe I was just lucky, I don't seem to react badly to injections whatever they are. Sure you'll get some responses regarding bad reactions, but if your doctor thinks you require it, and you don't normally have problems then probably wise to follow his advice. DL
My surgery is offering the vaccination to all over 65s at the moment.
I had this immunisation ten years ago and had absolutely no ill effects. Go for it!
These pages were made up for a leukaemia group, but have all the latest details for the Pneumonia vaccinations for anyone who is immune system compromised and thus in an at risk group.
Usefully there is a link to a government page so that you can take this to your doctor and get the TWO vaccinations done in the correct order and timing...
Antibody responses, pneumonia vaccines etc.
British Journal of Haematology 28 APR 2015
Poor functional antibody responses are present in nearly all patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, irrespective of total IgG concentration, and are associated with increased risk of infection
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...
Snip…..’Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) patients suffer considerable morbidity and mortality from infectious disease. This risk has been attributed to the development of a secondary immunodeficiency with a multi-factorial aetiology, including the effects of the underlying disease’.
‘ Total immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration is the most commonly used indicator of antibody deficiency but the magnitude of the humoral response against specific pathogens is also of considerable importance’
‘We undertook a cross-sectional study to examine the incidence of specific antibody deficiency in 56 CLL patients over 3 weeks at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and Birmingham Heartlands Hospital Haematology clinics in June 2013.’
‘As previously reported (Hamblin & Hamblin, 2008), a high incidence of infection was observed even in patients with early stage disease.’
‘Three patients received Prevenar13 and the remainder had been given Pneumovax23. This suggests that a more robust system of vaccination is required with clear guidelines on whether this should occur in primary or secondary care. At the time of study the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) had recently changed their guidance for haematological malignancy and now recommend that patients should be immunized with the conjugated vaccine Prevenar13 followed, at least 6 months later, by the previously recommended vaccine, Pneumovax23
( gov.uk/government/uploads/s...
last accessed 30 March 2015).
This study supports this decision in that we found patients who had received Pneumovax23 polysaccharide vaccine (n = 37) had protective levels against only 2 of 12 compared with 4 of 12 pneumococcal serotypes for unvaccinated patients.’
‘This cross-sectional study highlights the importance of investigating for antibody deficiency even in the early stages of CLL and supports a strategy of examining both whole and specific antibodies. Vaccination status should be checked on an annual basis. Enhanced vaccine regimens and additional strategies, such as prophylactic antibiotics or immunoglobulin replacement therapy, are required to reduce the high morbidity and mortality of infection in CLL.’
Followed by a useful long list of reference publications
Also a full PDF is at :- onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...
Dick
Had it with the flu shot last fall. No problem.
Thank you to everyone that took the time to reply to my question, I appreciate this. I will put my name down for the vaccination tomorrow. Apologies for taking so long to reply, things got busy this end
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