Today (April 25) is the 36th National Child Vaccination Day on the mainland. In order to make the public better understand the importance of vaccination and actively publicize the important role of vaccination in controlling infectious diseases and protecting the lives and health of the people, the National Health Commission has determined that the publicity theme of the "National Child Vaccination Day" in 2022 is "Timely Vaccination, Ensuring Life and Health".
Let's take this opportunity to talk about "those things" about vaccines.
What is a vaccine
People may be infected with corresponding diseases after contact with pathogenic microorganisms, which stimulates the production of certain antibodies in our body, which can bind to pathogenic microorganisms and destroy them, play a role in resisting diseases, and keep us healthy.
Vaccines are automatic immunocompromised agents for the prevention of infectious diseases made by artificial attenuation, inactivation, or the use of genetically modified organisms. After a series of special treatments, these "pathogenic microorganisms" have lost their pathogenicity and only retained their ability to stimulate the body's immune system. When the vaccine is injected into the baby's body, it will stimulate the immune system to come to a "big training" in advance, creating many antibodies against pathogenic microorganisms. When the baby is exposed to this pathogen again, the immune system can follow its original memory and quickly make more antibodies to eliminate the pathogen and protect the baby's health.
Why get vaccinated
When a baby is born, there are many antibodies brought from the mother's body, and these antibodies are called maternal antibodies. Because of the presence of maternal antibodies, newborn babies can be protected from infectious diseases for a certain period of time. But as your baby grows older, these antibodies weaken or even disappear.
At this time, it is necessary to vaccinate the baby in time to stimulate the body to produce corresponding antibodies and continue to protect the baby's health.
Vaccination is not only the most loyal "health umbrella" for children, but also the most effective measure to control infectious diseases.
After the promotion of oral polio "sugar pills", the mainland gradually blocked the transmission of the indigenous poliovirus. After decades of effort, the mainland has been free of cases of polio caused by native wild viruses since 1994, which has saved thousands of children from physical disability.
After universal neonatal hepatitis B vaccination, the rate of hepatitis B virus infection in children under 5 years of age on the mainland has dropped from 9.7% in 1992 to 0.3% in 2014. For more than 20 years, chronic hepatitis B virus infection rates in children under 5 years of age have decreased by 97%.
There are also measles, diphtheria, encephalopathy, Japanese encephalitis, etc., which seriously affect the health of children, and the incidence of vaccines has also dropped significantly after the gradual popularization of vaccines.
It can be said that the implementation of the national immunization program has effectively protected the health and life safety of the majority of children. Each of us should actively cooperate to vaccinate children in a timely manner in accordance with immunization programmes.
So, what is the current national immunization programme process?
National immunization programme policy
Vaccines are divided into immunization programme vaccines and non-immunization programme vaccines, i.e. first-class vaccines and second-class vaccines. The vaccines in the national immunization planning table shown in the figure above belong to a type of vaccine, which refers to the vaccines that the government provides free of charge to citizens and that citizens should receive in accordance with government regulations.
In addition, there are two types of vaccines, which refer to other vaccines that are paid for and voluntarily administered by citizens outside of the national immunization programme procedure.
The first type of seedlings and the second type of seedlings are classified by the state according to the financial situation and disease prevention plan, and there is no difference in importance between the two. For disease prevention, the second type of vaccine is an important supplement to the first type of vaccine. Therefore, if the family's economic conditions permit, it is still recommended that parents choose a suitable type II vaccine supplement according to the baby's physical condition to establish a more complete preventive protection for the child.
Important Class II vaccines: 60 g hepatitis B vaccine
Since 1992, the mainland began to vaccinate newborn infants and young children against hepatitis B, and now the rate of hepatitis B infection among newborns in the mainland has dropped significantly, but there are still a large number of patients in stock.
In addition, about five percent of the population cannot produce antibodies after receiving the hepatitis B vaccine, and belongs to the unanswered population.
"If the antibody titer of the five indicators of hepatitis B is less than 10mIU/ml or there is no antibody, the hepatitis B vaccine should be re-injected in time."
The 60 g hepatitis B vaccine is a hepatitis B vaccine developed specifically for low-response and non-responsive people, which is a good choice for high-risk groups such as young people over 16 years old, medical workers, and kidney dialysis patients.
In general, 1 dose of hepatitis B antibody can be vaccinated by no responders, and a very small number of non-responders need to be vaccinated with two injections. The interval between the two doses should be at least 4 weeks or more.
Important Class II vaccines: Quadruple vaccines
In August 2013, the quad vaccine developed and produced by the Chinese itself was successfully listed, breaking the technical monopoly of the quadruple vaccine in one fell swoop. The Hib strains in the domestic quadruple vaccine are isolated from domestic patients, which is more homologous and better for Chinese babies, and immediately assumes the responsibility of protecting the health of Chinese children.
Quad vaccine, i.e. the combination vaccine of Haemophilus influenzae type b without cell pertussis b. It is the first combination vaccine containing diphtheria pertussis in China, which can simultaneously prevent pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, and invasive diseases caused by Haemophilus influenzae type B (including meningitis, pneumonia, upper respiratory tract infections, sepsis, etc.).
Babies are given one injection each in the third, fourth and fifth months of life, and a fourth dose from one and a half to two and a half years old.
Quadruple vaccines are for infants and young children over 3 months of age and can be given in any season.
Important Class II vaccines: 13-valent pneumonia vaccine
In recent years, the drug resistance of pneumococcal bacteria is increasing, and the treatment is difficult, the course of the disease is long, and the cost of treatment is increasing. Early vaccination against 13-valent pneumonia is currently the most economical, safest and effective way to protect.
13-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine is specifically designed to deal with pneumococcal bacteria, it covers the most common and pathogenic 13 pneumococcal serotypes in life, can always protect children from pneumococcal diseases.
There are now two imported and domestically produced 13-valent pneumonia vaccines to choose from, although the two are very different in vaccination regimens. Domestic 13-valent pneumonia vaccine is divided into two types: single carrier and double carrier.
Director Wang Ming, a special allowance expert of the State Council and chief physician of epidemiology, once proposed: "Some vaccines can only compete for more immune resources by increasing the amount of antigen and carrier protein. However, too much antigen or increased carrier protein content may cause two adverse consequences: one is to increase the probability of adverse reactions to the vaccine, and the other is to cause immune tolerance, and the final result is counterproductive. In order to avoid this situation, some vaccine research and development uses a 'double carrier' approach to avoid the drawbacks of carrier protein competition. ”
The latest domestic dual-carrier 13-valent pneumonia vaccine has a wide vaccination window, and babies aged 6 weeks to 5 years old (before the 6-year-old birthday) can be vaccinated at any time.
●Infants aged 2 to 6 months: A total of 4 doses were given. The first dose is recommended at 2 months of age (minimum 6 weeks of age), 3 doses of basic immunization, with an interval of 2 months between each dose, and 1 dose of intensive dose at 12 to 15 months of age.
● Infants 7 to 11 months of age: 3 doses in total. 2 doses of basic immunization at least 1 month apart each dose and 1 dose of intensive administration after 12 months of age, at least 2 months apart from the second dose.
● Children aged 12 to 23 months: 2 doses at least 2 months apart.
● Children 24 months to 5 years of age: 1 dose.
Vaccinations can be flexible depending on your child's age.
Important class II vaccines: Hib vaccine
On the mainland, about 50% of purulent meningitis is caused by Hib infection. This is an extremely dangerous disease for babies, and the mortality rate can be as high as 5%. Even if cured, there is a 20%-40% chance of causing severe neurological sequelae (blindness, deafness, learning disabilities).
As with the 13-valent pneumonia vaccine, many countries have included Hib vaccine in national childhood immunization programmes with a high degree of attention.
Hib, or Haemophilus influenzae type b, is a bacterium. It can cause a variety of serious infectious diseases such as meningitis, pneumonia, epiglottitis, etc. in children, and even lead to death. Once infected with Hib pneumonia and meningitis, the younger the age, the more serious the complications, the higher the case fatality rate, which is a serious threat to the health of children, especially infants and young children.
HiB vaccine, also known as Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine, is currently available in a variety of dosage forms of Hib vaccine. The newer type is the hib vaccine of the lyophilized dosage form, which adopts vacuum lyophilization technology to form a lyophilized dosage form vaccine with a more stable quality and easier storage and transportation after the Hib stock solution is mixed in proportion to form a more stable quality and easier to store and transport.
●Children aged 3 to 6 months, 3 doses at intervals of 1 month per injection, and 1 dose at 18 months of age;
●Children aged 6 to 12 months, 2 doses at intervals of 1 to 2 months per needle, and one dose of intensive vaccination at 18 months of age;
●Children 1 to 5 years of age only need to be vaccinated once.
Vaccination is an important means to maintain public health security and block the spread of the epidemic, which is of great significance to protecting the lives and health of the people. After more than 40 years of efforts in immunization work, the mainland has made great progress in increasing the vaccination rate of children and preventing and controlling targeted infectious diseases with vaccines. It is believed that with the gradual improvement of people's awareness of vaccination, the mainland's immunization prevention cause will surely deliver a better answer. Science and technology are developing, I believe that in the future, more and more vaccines for various diseases will be born, contributing to the protection of human life and health.
Workers Daily client "Le Health" No. 212
Source: Workers Daily client Workers Daily reporter Ji Wei