Photo: CC0
Children should get some vaccinations a little earlier and others a little later.
Protection will improve if the schedule of the National Vaccination Program is adjusted, the Health Council advised on Wednesday. The council proposes to shift five of the fourteen injections.
For example, the council recommends giving the second shot against mumps, measles and rubella much earlier. Children receive the first vaccination against it when they are 14 months old and the second shot at the age of 9 years. According to the council, it is better to give the last dose when the children are 2 to 4 years old.
Children aged 9 are now also vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and polio. According to the Health Council, it is better to give it when they are 14.
Another vaccination that, according to the council, can be postponed is the vaccination for 4-year-olds against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and polio. It is better to give it when they are 5 or 6, and then only for diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus.
Babies aged 11 months receive two injections, which are better administered when they are a month older, the Health Council believes. This concerns the vaccination against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, haemophilis influenzae type b and hepatitis B, and the vaccination against pneumococci.