The yearly infectious disease statistical data, which includes data on children, have shown significant numbers of cases of infection with tick-borne encephalitis.
Three of the 53 administrative districts in the Moscow region and 18 of 23 districts in the Yaroslovl region are natural endemic foci for this illness. Currently, preventive vaccination is the only reliable protection from the disease.
The Children’s Clinic at EMC has extensive experience in this area. We use the FSME-Immun Inject/Junior, a certified European vaccine from Austria.
The human immune system becomes resistant to tick encephalitis only with administration of the 3-dose vaccine. The first dose is recommended to be given in the fall, the second 5-7 months later in the spring, and the third, in order to form stable immunity against infection, 9-12 months after the second dose.
However, 5-7 months is quite a long period of time, and things can often be forgotten only to be remembered when it is too late.
The FSME-Immun Inject/Junior vaccine is advantageous in that it may be given on an alternative dosage schedule: The second dose of the vaccination may be given 1-3 months after the first.
The most important thing is to give the child's body time to develop protective antibodies before a possible meeting with infection (before the beginning of May), and this requires less than one month.
Therefore, if your child was not vaccinated in the fall, do not worry: it is possible to vaccinate in February or March.
It is important to remember that the emergency vaccination schedule, when the two injections are given only 2 weeks apart, is too much work for a child’s immune system.
Keep your child safe with timely protection from tick encephalitis!