Tuesday, March 25, 2014

DPT causing pain in baby, is painless DPT not available anywhere in India - Pentaxim / Infanrix/ Tripacel?

Q: Dear Doctors, My 2.5 month old son is due for his second dose of DTP vaccination. We gave him DTwP {Pentavacc} the first time due to non availability of Pentaxim. But he cried a lot and had lot of pain full day. For second dose, we want to give him painless vaccine but Pentaxim is still not available. But hospitals in Mumbai do have Infanrix available. I am not aware of this vaccine, and am not able to find much info on internet either. Can I give my son Infanrix for the second dose_? Pls help me as I am very confused, and we want to give him painless vaccine only. Regards
A: Infanrix is also not available at present. It is otherwise a safe & effective vaccine made by the multinational company GSK. At present no 'painless' DPT vaccine is available in India. You need to wait or continue giving the same vaccine. The next batch may become available by mid april, 2014 as per the company representatives.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello,

Is painless DPT vaccine of any company available now ? I have my daughter's second dose @ 10 weeks coming up and looking to get her painless one this time as first time she had to bear pain and fever for a day on her first dose with Quadravac. Also why are we seeing shortage of painless DPT vaccines ? Any specific reasons ?

Unknown said...

Hello,

Is painless DPT vaccine of any company available now ? I have my daughter's second dose @ 10 weeks coming up and looking to get her painless one this time as first time she had to bear pain and fever for a day on her first dose with Quadravac. Also why are we seeing shortage of painless DPT vaccines ? Any specific reasons ?

Dr. Gaurav Gupta M.D. said...

Yes,
Painless DPT (Dtap) is now available in extremely limited quantities.
INFANRIX - by GSK is the only brand available at present for kids less than 4 years age.
At 5 year age we also have the possibility of using BOOSTRIX (again by GSK), since INFANRIX - the preferred vaccine at this age, is in short supply.
Talk to your doctor regarding the same.
The reason for shortages are not clear, but if you read vaccine news from the US, they have regular shortages of various vaccines as well.