Vaccinations for children: Russian national vaccination calendar

Unfortunately, when children meet at school after the holidays, they exchange not only vivid summer impressions, but also pathogenic microbes. However, if the child received all the necessary vaccinations on time, nothing threatens him.

Vaccination (or vaccination) is the introduction into the human body of a weakened strain of a virus or ready-made antibodies to pathogens to form specific immunity to diseases. Depending on the type of vaccination, antibodies to the infectious agent last from several months to several years, and sometimes for life. Here is a list of the most dangerous diseases that can be avoided through vaccination: influenza, hepatitis A and B, meningitis, measles, rubella, polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus, tick-borne encephalitis.

A little history

The English doctor Edward Jenner is considered a pioneer in the field of vaccination. In 1796, while practicing in the countryside, Jenner noticed that farmers working with cows infected with cowpox did not get smallpox. He inoculated a boy with cowpox and proved that he became immune to smallpox. This method, invented at a time when neither bacteria nor viruses had yet been discovered, became widespread throughout the world and formed the basis of modern vaccination.

In defense of vaccination

Parents still doubt whether their child should be vaccinated, because many of the diseases that doctors try to protect children from with vaccines are extremely rare. Indeed, the invention of the vaccine has allowed humanity to achieve incredible results in the fight against infections. Natural smallpox, a disease that killed millions of people every year, has been completely eradicated from the world. Polio has virtually disappeared, and the global eradication of measles continues. The incidence of diphtheria, rubella, whooping cough, mumps and many other dangerous infectious diseases has been reduced hundreds and even thousands of times. However, when, against the backdrop of epidemiological well-being, people stop taking vaccinations provided for by national health care systems, infections that were considered long ago defeated again make themselves felt. An illustrative example is the return of diphtheria to Russian territory in the mid-90s, which until that time had only been encountered occasionally. Then, as a result of the campaign against vaccinations launched by pseudo-specialists, more than 100 thousand people fell ill with diphtheria, several thousand of them died. And only mass vaccination of children made it possible to stop the epidemic. Therefore, all children must be vaccinated.

Vaccination at school or kindergarten

CONS Why get vaccinated if the disease no longer occurs?

Unfortunately, mass vaccination of previous generations reduces the wariness of parents today. The USSR Ministry of Health actively vaccinated our parents and grandparents, vaccination covered almost the majority of the population, this, of course, reduced the incidence of some infections to almost zero. Therefore, today the population is becoming less wary of these infections, which leads to refusal of vaccination.

This was the case in 1998, when, against the background of refusals to vaccinate against diphtheria, cases of this dangerous disease appeared in Russia. After all, the new generation of doctors no longer knew this deadly disease so well, which led to cases of late diagnosis. We are seeing a similar situation now in Europe, where the incidence of measles has increased sharply.

FOR VACCINATION Vaccines really save children's lives

The American Academy of Pediatrics states that most childhood vaccines are 90%-99% effective in preventing disease. According to the United Nations, vaccines save 2.5 million children every year from preventable diseases, which is equivalent to saving 285 children's lives every hour. Measles vaccination reduced child mortality by 74%!

Thanks to vaccination, children are no longer vaccinated against smallpox because the disease no longer exists in the world. The last case of smallpox in the United States was in 1948 and in the world in 1977 in Somalia.

CONS Vaccination can cause side effects

Post-vaccination complications can be very serious and rarely even fatal.

Statistics show that all vaccines carry a risk of post-vaccination complications. However, it is also true that modern vaccines cause a minimum of complications, which are listed in the instructions for their use.

Thus, statistical studies have shown

• Rotavirus vaccination has a 1 to 5 chance per 100,000 children of causing intussusception (a type of intestinal obstruction) that will require the child to be hospitalized.
• Influenza vaccination has a 1 to 2 per million chance of being associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome (a disorder in which the immune system attacks the peripheral nervous system)

FOR VACCINATION Adverse reactions to vaccines are extremely rare

The most common side effect of vaccines is a severe allergic reaction (anaphylactic shock), which occurs in one in every few hundred thousand to one million vaccinations.

If you describe the likelihood of anaphylactic shock from a vaccine, then the likelihood of being struck by lightning is about 100 times higher!

CONS Vaccines contain harmful ingredients

Merthiolate (an organic mercury compound found in trace amounts in childhood influenza vaccines and other adult vaccines) has been linked to autism. Especially on this occasion, the US Congress held hearings on this topic and, although there was not a single report of side effects of merthiolate in vaccines, it was recommended to reduce its doses in vaccination preparations. It is currently excluded from many vaccines.

Aluminum can be contained in trace amounts in vaccines: with vaccines, a child will receive 295-1225 mcg of aluminum by 2 months, while with breast milk by 2 months he will receive 26,700 mcg of aluminum.

FOR VACCINATION Even toxic components of vaccines are not dangerous

The toxic substances included in vaccines are used in such ultra-small quantities that they do not pose a danger at all. Merthiolate (particles containing mercury), formaldehyde and aluminum, which can be part of vaccines, are harmful to health only in large doses, but they are not used in vaccines during harmful quantities. It has been proven that children receive more aluminum in breast milk and infant formula than in vaccines. Also, on a daily basis, children living in urban environments are exposed to more bacteria, viruses, toxins and other harmful substances in a single day of normal life than are exposed to vaccinations. With the exception of inactivated influenza vaccines, merthiolate has been removed or reduced to trace levels in all US-manufactured vaccines for children under 6 years of age.

For comparison: when using coal for heating a home, a person regularly receives a larger dose of mercury than when vaccinated.

CONS Vaccines can make you sick

There is an opinion that if an infectious component is introduced during vaccination, then a person can become infected with the disease for which he is vaccinated.

• Live vaccines are currently practically not used. Modern vaccines are inactivated, i.e. only part of the infectious agent is introduced, which cannot cause disease.
• Unfortunately, vaccines will not protect if the vaccine is given to a person who is already infected and in the incubation period of the disease. At the same time, there may indeed be a feeling that a person has become “infected” from the vaccine. But this is not so.

To prevent this from happening, you need to get vaccinated not at the last moment, when everyone around you is already sick, but in advance, so that vaccination is safe and immunity is formed before mass morbidity or an epidemic.

FOR VACCINATION Vaccines save parents from costs

Indeed, vaccination costs parents several times less time and money than the cost of treating infectious diseases in children.

Unfortunately, health is “expensive” in every sense. You should consider:

• all life opportunities for growth, development and self-realization missed by the child due to illness
• your time and money will be spent on caring for a sick child (instead of developing him, walking, communicating or relaxing with him)
• the cost of potential long-term care for a child if, after suffering a severe infectious disease, he becomes disabled.

Understand that no one is vaccinating anyone against “mild” or “minor” infections. Vaccination is a very difficult process for the state; vaccines are not made just like that. The diseases for which these high-tech complex drugs are developed and produced are truly serious and life-threatening to the child.

FOR VACCINATION Vaccination of pregnant women protects newborns

Yes it is. Today, a large number of vaccines can be used by pregnant women and young mothers whose newborns are breastfed.

Vaccinated pregnant women protect their unborn children from viruses with their immunity. This is especially important because viruses penetrate the placenta to the fetus, have an extremely negative effect on it, causing very severe and even incompatible with life malformations and intrauterine diseases.

FOR VACCINATION Rare diseases still occur

Diseases controlled by vaccination have not completely disappeared, so vaccination is still necessary. Many vaccine-preventable diseases still exist in the country or are at risk of being imported from other countries. For example, although the paralytic form of polio has disappeared due to vaccination, the virus still exists in countries such as Pakistan, where there were 93 cases in 2013 and 71 cases in 2014.

CONCLUSION: only you can decide whether to vaccinate yourself and your child or not. But world practice suggests that vaccination to protect a child is not a whim, not a fashion statement, not an obligation, but a necessity.

Opponents have a word

Although vaccines protect the body from certain pathogens, none of them are 100% effective. It is known that the effectiveness of some vaccines is low due to the genetic variability of microbes. This largely explains those cases when, despite following all the vaccination rules, people still get sick. For example, the genome of the influenza A virus, which causes severe respiratory illness, can occasionally change so much that vaccination is useless. In addition, the effectiveness of vaccination, even when potentially effective vaccines are used and administered correctly, depends on the individual characteristics of the human body, his age, nutrition and the state of the immune system. Sometimes vaccines cause serious adverse reactions. For example, people with an allergy to egg white may develop anaphylaxis (a systemic allergic reaction of the body) when they are given vaccines that contain this protein. The whooping cough vaccine sometimes causes severe neurological reactions. Other side effects from vaccines include soreness and swelling at the injection site, as well as fever. Severe complications that can arise after vaccination are the main argument of opponents of vaccination. However, doctors believe that it is better to suffer a “small illness” than to risk getting seriously ill.

Most important

Of particular importance for school-age children is vaccination against tuberculosis, hepatitis B, mumps and rubella. Currently, tuberculosis affects nine million people worldwide each year, of whom three million die from its complications. The main prevention of this infection today is the BCG vaccine. This vaccination is usually given in the maternity hospital in the first days of the child’s life. At six to seven years of age, if the Mantoux reaction is negative, revaccination is carried out. Mumps (mumps) is common in all countries of the world. It affects people of any age, but children aged 5 to 15 years are most susceptible to infection. The infection spreads through airborne droplets or through direct contact with the patient and objects on which his saliva has come into contact. For boys, mumps is especially dangerous: there is evidence that it can lead to infertility. Vaccination against rubella is especially important for girls. It is known that if a pregnant woman experiences this disease, the development of the fetus will be adversely affected. Therefore, immunity to rubella should be taken care of during adolescence. Adolescents of both sexes should be revaccinated against hepatitis B at the age of 12–13. Today's children grow up quickly and begin to be sexually active early. In addition, the problem of teenage drug addiction in our country has not yet been solved. All this creates a high risk of contracting a dangerous virus.

National calendar of preventive vaccinations The current version was adopted by order No. 27 of January 17, 2006 of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation and includes the following vaccinations:

Since 2006, influenza vaccination has been included in the list of mandatory vaccinations for school-age children. Influenza vaccination in schools should be carried out annually.

Admission to first grade: which doctors need to be examined before school.

Which doctors are recommended to see?

Some experts still believe that a medical examination is necessary to monitor the health status of children. According to statistics, many diseases are detected for the first time just before entering a school institution. Other experts are confident that mandatory medical examinations before kindergarten will eliminate repeated formal medical examinations and red tape with certificates.

Parents can make an appointment with the necessary specialists without having to go through a doctor. To do this, it is better to visit a pediatrician, who will refer you to doctors for an examination, and he may also recommend specific tests for additional examination.

In 2021, the mandatory medical examination included the following doctors:

1. Otolaryngologist. The doctor checks the child's ears, throat and nose. Without the presence of pathologies, he makes a conclusion and can recommend preventive measures against infectious diseases that are common in primary school.
2. Neurologist (neurologist). The specialist specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the brain and spinal cord. It is especially necessary to visit a doctor if there are problems with speech development, stuttering, increased irritability, poor sleep, or the child complains of headaches. The doctor will give advice on how to quickly adapt to school, and how to absorb information as usefully as possible.
3. Dentist. This doctor must be seen twice a year. At the age of 6-7 years, baby teeth fall out and molars begin to sprout. The correct thing to do is to monitor your child’s bite and take timely measures. In addition, the sooner a child gets used to dental examinations and procedures, the less afraid he will be of visiting the dentist's office in the future.
4. Oculist. Testing vision at this age is important; if it is deteriorated, then teachers can seat the child in the first desk. If necessary, the ophthalmologist will prescribe eye exercises or even glasses, and recommend the frequency of visual acuity testing.
5. Traumatologist-orthopedist. The surgeon checks the condition of the musculoskeletal system, looking at posture, spine and condition of the feet. The specialist will recommend how to properly organize the student’s workplace. If you have any problems, you may need massage or physical therapy.

Additional tests that may be required: blood, urine, feces and scraping for enterobiasis.

About vaccinations for first graders

Vaccination of first-graders is also voluntary. According to the law, unvaccinated children cannot be deprived of access to education, but in the midst of any epidemic they will have to be vaccinated. Without vaccination, during periods of mass infectious diseases, a temporary refusal to admit a child to a school is allowed. There is a certain vaccination schedule, according to which a child receives vaccinations by the first grade against major diseases transmitted by airborne droplets or household contact: whooping cough, measles, rubella, hepatitis B and some others.

After vaccination

After vaccination, the child should be under the supervision of medical staff for 15-20 minutes in case he experiences anaphylactic shock or another allergic reaction. In the evening after vaccination, the temperature may rise. In this case, your home medicine cabinet should contain antipyretics for children. It would also be a good idea to give the student one tablet of the latest generation antihistamine. Pay attention to how your child feels 5–12 days after vaccination. Vaccines against diphtheria and whooping cough can make themselves felt during this period. Check to see if your child has rashes, complains of fatigue, decreased appetite, or has a fever.

Should children be required to get flu shots?

The situation with children is approximately the same as with teachers. The national vaccination calendar includes mandatory types of vaccinations. Flu vaccination is considered mandatory for schoolchildren. But according to the health protection law, parents can refuse and not vaccinate their child. Children are not yet vaccinated against coronavirus at all.

If a child does not have vaccinations, including against flu, he must still be allowed to attend classes. Difficulties arise during epidemics. However, during or before epidemics, schools and kindergartens may temporarily refuse to admit children. But, firstly, Rospotrebnadzor must declare an epidemic and send the corresponding decree to schools. Without this document, the school does not have the right to suspend children from classes. And, secondly, lawyers interpret the phrase “admission of citizens to educational organizations” differently. Some believe that the right to be suspended from school is spelled out here, while others believe that it says that during epidemics it is forbidden to enroll new but unvaccinated children into kindergartens and schools.

Tips for parents

1. If any vaccinations are contraindicated for your child, be sure to inform his class teacher about this. Take a certificate from the children's clinic and take it to school. Be sure to warn your child that he should not be vaccinated.

2. Remember, the BCG vaccine (against tuberculosis) is not given to children who are currently sick or have already had tuberculosis.

3. If you want your child to receive a vaccine from a specific manufacturer, consult your pediatrician and purchase the drug at the pharmacy.