What Can You Do In Case Your Child Missed Their Vaccination?
Last year, by this time, the world had come to a standstill after the entire world went on a lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The normal daily life routine as we knew it became far from achievable. While the adults had to get used to working full time from home along with managing the household chores, the children also struggled alike. All the students had to switch to online classes instead of going to schools and colleges. Young students were also unable to go out and meet or play with their friends. In fact, most of the people during this time were in contact with nobody but their families. This certainly made a harsh impact on children and young adults as the significance of peers is undeniable in the formative years of a person.
People had to follow certain restrictions and maintain social distancing. As a result, most places that people could go to were also shut down. Even though infants and young children did not experience the desperation felt by the adults, this lockdown certainly impacted them as most of these infants and kids missed their scheduled vaccinations which can put them at risk of contracting various infections.
However, experts have introduced a solution for this called ‘Catch-Up Vaccination’.
So, what exactly is ‘catch-up vaccination’?
Catch-up vaccination basically refers to the process where you administer a particular vaccine to someone who did not get that vaccine at the recommended age. It can be administered to people who weren’t vaccinated previously, who missed a particular vaccine schedule or who haven’t completed their vaccine schedule. There has been a rise in the cases of catch-up vaccination after the lockdown was lifted and parents have been trying to get their children’s vaccination schedule back on track. In fact, regularly scheduled vaccination is a significant factor in boosting immunity and also fighting against vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). The vaccine-preventable diseases or VDPs include diseases like tetanus, pertussis, measles, chickenpox, pneumonia, mumps, rubella and hepatitis.
A lot of times children can miss out on taking a particular vaccine shot due to a number of reasons. Whatever the reason may be, the doctors always advise the parents to restart the child’s vaccination as soon as possible.
With the normalcy slowly returning back to the lives of the people, the healthcare industry is also returning back to their schedule, which has marked a significant boost in the cases of catch-up vaccination and doctors all over the world are recommending it strongly.
The catch-up vaccination provides a good immunity against VDPs and it becomes as effective as a regularly scheduled vaccine shot would be. A lot of vaccines fight a particular disease for an entire lifetime. Hence, it is not really an issue if you miss a vaccination and take a catch-up vaccine instead.
Dr Anshu Sethi, who is a paediatrician at Apollo Clinic in Pune said that it is mandatory for children till 5 years of age to take proper vaccination and approximately thirty percent of catch-up vaccination cases were witnessed in the OPD. Out of a total of 10 patients, 3 patients see a doctor for catch-up vaccination. This can also be attributed to the fact there is no particular time limit in this regard and the parents can approach the doctors to restart the vaccination schedule.
As an added reminder, people should keep in mind that the Covid vaccine has not been approved for kids yet but parents can still get them vaccinated against diseases like meningitis, rubella, measles, hepatitis B and tuberculosis.
Please remember that there is no “right” time for getting a catch-up vaccination, anytime will prove to be a good time. So, in case your child also missed their scheduled vaccination in this pandemic or due to some other reason, you should restart their vaccination schedule now.