Vacinations

[womble]

I have read some previous threads on vaccines in Thailand through the search and it seems there are some well informed people on this board, aswell as the usual conspiracy theorists, although I do believe there are dangers that are certainly hidden from us by governments and pharma companies, so with vaccines I guess the best thing is to research as much as possible and make a decision based on the info that you can gather.

I have a six week old daughter born in Thailand, she has already had the 1st BCG and Hep B, more to follow for those two vaccinations I believe. Hep B very prevalent in Thailand and very contagious so defo a must for all in Thailand as far as i'm concerned anyway. How effective the TB one is seems to be open to hot debate, the possible bonus against proven or possible side effects seemed on the right side, so we agreed like most to these two standard vaccines given at birth to all babies in Thailand.

Now there are two more vaccines to consider, MMR (I wasn't given this as my mother was worried about side effects, I was very unwell as a baby and my mother didn't want to take any further risks at that stage, i've been ok without it), and another vaccine which is totally new to me, PCV7, IPD - Pneumococcal conjugated Vaccine, given in 4 doses and at a cost of 26,798 at the private hospital I use here in Samui.

I've pretty much decided on giving MMR, but i'm very unsure of this Pneumococcal Vaccine. Meningitis and the other infections this vaccine is for are pretty rare as far as I am aware, although I am aware of how serious it can potentially be, my niece came down with it age 6 and was quarentined, myself and other close family were given medication which turned our piss orange.......anyway she made a full recovery.

Does anyone have info on this vaccine, possible side effects and why it's so expensive.

I'm interested to know if other members have given this vaccine to their little ones and also why is it so costly, my guess is it's a new vaccine, but thats a guess just because I havn't heard of it before. Anyway price regardless, that's alot cheaper than treatment for the disease, i'm not worried about costs, i'm just interested in information that can help me make an informed decision on whether to give this to my child.

I'm about to look on google for all the info I can find, and ofcourse will check with experts before a final deccsion, just thought i'd post here first as I would like some Thailand specific information and also in the past I have found their are members on the board who are employed in all manner of jobs that over the years have given me a wealth of useful information on a wide range of subjects, nothing quite so important as the health of my 6 weeks old tho,

So please anyone answering with important info that could effect my decision if they could let me know if they are a lay person, Dr, or hold a position that holds clout on the issue.

thanks,

W.

[Sheryl]

Don't know what your "clout" criteria are, but I am a registered nurse with a Master's Degree in Public Health and have done research related to this.

The pneumococcal vaccine is indeed relatively new and hence the cost.

It prevents not only pneumoccocal meningitis but also pneumococcal pneumonia. Pneumonia is the leading cause of deaths in children under the age of five worldwide. I don't know of any studies specific to Thailand but I do know that recent epidemiological studies of children with pneumonia in Cambodia found that a large proportion were to due to pneumococcus. The evidence was deemed sufficiently compelling for donors to agree to finance the introduction of the vaccine there.

If it were my child I would get the vaccine.

[womble]

Sheryl,

I saw you made some great contributions on other vaccine related threads, I thanks you for sparing your time to share your knowledge.

Sorry when I meant clout I meant people with decent information, not heresay from conspiricy theory sites.......

[fletchsmile]

As mentioned the vaccine is relatively new.

Our oldest daughter had a complete course: 4 shots - can't remember exactly dates but it was something likely monthly and then last one a year later. The youngest daughter had 3 shots so far, and will have the 4th in a couple of months.

Yes it's expensive at around THB 6,000 each time so I guess your amount is right for a ballpark. We had them done at Bumrungrad. We went there as we go there for anything serious and for all vacations so the records are in the same place. For other vaccinations I know you can get cheaper at some places, but not sure for this one with it being a new private one which is not on the "standard" list like MMR, small pox etc etc. I believe in the UK it is now given routinely as standard.

Honestly we did think twice given the price. On the other hand it protects against some very nasty diseases like bacterial which can be very serious - some people don't make a full recovery. We then decided 25k was quite a chunk of money, but if for our daughters' health not worth taking the risk. Risk is small but impact is very serious if it happens. Once we did for one daughter we felt we should of course do for the second.

Side effects were no different than for any other vaccine in our experience.