measles-mumps-rubella vaccine

Routine Childhood Vaccines Given From 1 through 18 Years of Age

Author/s: 
Jacobson, RM

In addition to the vaccines due in the first year of life, the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends that children continue to receive vaccines regularly against a variety of infectious diseases. Starting at 12 to 15 months of life, these include the two-dose measles-mumps-rubella vaccine series and the two-dose varicella vaccine series. Also in the second year of life, infants should begin the two-dose hepatitis A vaccine series and complete the Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine series as well as the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine series. Before 19 months of life, infants should receive the third dose of the poliovirus vaccine and the fourth dose of diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine. The final doses of poliovirus and tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccines are both due at 4 to 6 years of life. Before each influenza season, every child should receive the influenza vaccine. Those less than 9 years of age who previously received less than two doses need two doses a month apart. At 11 to 12 years of life, all should get two doses of the human papillomavirus vaccine, the adolescent/adult version of the tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccine, and begin a two-dose series of meningococcal ACWY vaccine. Each of these vaccines is due when the vaccine works to protect against both an immediate risk as well as to provide long-term protection. Each vaccine-preventable disease varies in terms of the nature of exposure, the form of the morbidity, the risk of mortality, and potential to prevent or ameliorate its harm.

Copyright © 2020 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The MMR Vaccine Is Not Associated With Risk for Autism

Author/s: 
Hviid, A., Hansen J.V., Frisch, M., Melbye, M.

What is the problem and what is known about it so far?

Many parents choose not to vaccinate their children because of worry about autism, even though the 1998 study claiming to show that children who receive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine were at increased risk for autism was fraudulent. Low MMR vaccination coverage has led to measles epidemics, which can be deadly. Unvaccinated people who develop measles can pass the infection to babies who have not yet been vaccinated. Many studies have shown no link between the MMR vaccine and autism, but a criticism has been that they did not specifically examine whether MMR vaccination could trigger autism in specific groups of susceptible children.

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