Question & Answers - 1. Question

Question:

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Good morning Prof. Dr. Vaudaux,

I have found your email on the “tbe-info” web site. One year ago my husband has been affected by TBE. We live in a risk area (Italy). We have a daughter 20 months old and we don’t know if she is too
young to receive vaccine. I have received different answer and so I would like to found an expert
answer. Can you help me or can you indicate me an expert at this problem?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Best regards
E.Z.

Answer:

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Dear Mrs Z.,

Your 20-month-old daughter is not too young to be vaccinated against the tick-borne encephalitis virus. To the best of my knowledge, TBE vaccines are registered for use from the age of 12 months.

In some countries, like mine, however we observe that the probability for such a young child to catch the infection and then to go on developing a symptomatic disease is so low that we deem it unnecessary to routinely immunize young children.

If you select to go on with the vaccination in your daughter, you should be aware that, altough this vaccine is very safe, the first dose of vaccine is associated with a fairly high incidence of benign (but unpleasant) headaches. Considering that a young child is unable to complain about headaches other than by crying loud and long, you should be prepared to your daughter getting on crying hard after receiving the vaccine, particularly the first dose.

Best regards.

Bernard Vaudaux
Unité d'infectiologie pédiatrique et vaccinologie
Département médico-chirurgical de pédiatrie / CHUV & HEL
Lausanne
Tél 41 21 314 10 79
Fax 41 21 314 10 33

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