Prevnar vs Pneumoccal Polysaccharide in a

standingfirm; I have 14 and 20 year old...I have not heard of Prevnar...of course i am in canada and things arealot different...i hope someone can help you on this,we have alot of great members and someone may have a suggestion...

I know that kids received..mumps measels and rubella.....and then they DPTP,s ....and once in grade 7-8 they get 2 measels shots...

It is that 16+ to 65 years that I am concerned about. How long is Prevnar good for

I have young children, too.  The pneumonia vaccine they are given as children is given in 4 dosages, the abbreviation for this vaccine is PCV.  It is a vaccine for a particular strain of pneumonia which is very dangerous to young children.  This is not the same as the pneumonia vaccine that we need to get now.  This pneumonia vaccine, abbreviation PPV23, covers 23 different strains of pneumonia.  My children are getting this vaccine tomorrow, and they are under the age of 7.   The pneumonia vaccine is called Pneumovax, not Prevnar. Prevnar might be the name of the childhood vaccine. I would get copies of each of their immunization records and see what they need.  The CDC has detailed descriptions of all vaccines and has time-lines for child and adult vaccines.  www.cdc.gov  I think this is the website. Good luck.

Thank you all for answering. The pediatrician said that they will not give a pneumovax to the kids unless they have a preexisting condition 

    I don't understand why this vaccine will help when the B.F. comes, as it will be a mutated strain. Can someone tell me?

the thread is called secondary pneumonia from h5n1

Hi I was very lucky to get the adult vaccine for both children aged 9 and 10. It was close because the doctor didn't know how long the infant one lasted. At first she said it wasn't needed for travel quoting the cdc website. But I told her I was sure I had seen it on the WHO travel injection page. She even called my clinic that had refused to give any of us the injection. They told her they did have it at the clinic. Then she gave it to them the same vaccine I had gotten. This took atleast 30 minutes back and forth. I stood firm and just said "could you please just give them the injection anyway" I had to sign a paper as it was not on her list of travel vaccinations. This was at a travel clinic the office call was 60.00 the shots were 45.00 each.

Standingfirm, my pediatrician didn't want to give it to my 10 year old at first either, I had to go over the fact, she has asthma, has been hospitalized in the past with pneumonia, etc. and he still didn't want to give it. I then figured what the heck: I told him I had been doing personal research on the internet for several months and following H5N1, we talked about secondary pneumona, discussed that is was being passed to mamals (this was during the week the first cat got it) now and how fast it was spreading. He also talked to me about Hantavirus and Meningitis and he then said she could get the pneumonia vaccine. If I had not mentioned the real reason, I don't think he would have given it. Then this past week I went with my oldest daughter and 6 year old grandaughter (DD wanted me to come because she said I have a way of convincing people and she was afraid they would tell her no and she didn't know what to say to them). Daughter asked the same doc to give her daugher the vaccine and he said no, I said "remember me" and briefly refreshed his memory and he asid ok, so my grandaughter got the vaccine, grandson is 2 and couldn't get it because he was sick, they said wait 2-3 weeks on him. Keep trying, someone will give it to them. The doc did say it was an unusual request,he wrote nothing in the chart about H5N1 (I looked) he just wrote "high risk" then the nurse gave the vaccine.

My twins (now 2 yrs old) had the Prevnar series during their first two years. At their second birthday exam this past January, I asked our pediatrician about getting them the pneumonia vaccination (Pneumovax) and he consented. I got my pneumovax myself at our local pharmacy without any trouble as well. I would check other doctors, and/or pharmacies in your area to see if they offer the pneumovax. You don't need a prescription to get it. We opted to have our kids get the pneumovax to reduce possibilities of bacterial pneumonia and its complications during Bird Flu. There are really not any major side effects -- just the normal ones from any vaccination. It did hurt a bit more -- at least for my daughter.

One other note. There are two different brands of pneumonia vaccinations out there. We went with the Pneumovax as it does not use mercury as a preservative.