Prevnar Vaccine

[KeithandElizabeth]

I am definitely not vaccinating my PANDAS son again with Prevnar, but I was contemplating vaccinating my non-PANDAS daughter who also failed the S. Pneumonaie vaccines. I thought this was an interesting article about the vaccine. You do have to remember the amount of money some of this drug companies make!!!

 

http://www.vaclib.org/basic/tenpenny/prevn...gi?artid=175870

[Mason]

We are considering the same question. Our son was given Prevnar at age 5 (he is now 11) and his repeated pneumonia's stopped. He was diagnosed with PANDAS and IGG anemia at age 9. With pneumonia being the common complication of swine flu, we are considering the booster of Prevnar. My personal thoughts are to start antibodics a few days before the booster?

[ShaesMom]

Just curious-considering the age of your children would they not actually be receiving Pneumovax rather than Prevnar?? I did not think Prevnar was given to anyone above the age of 5 but I may be wrong.

 

Wow Elizabeth-considering your daughter's results on the Cunningham test that seems like a tough call.

[KeithandElizabeth]

Oh - I most likely will not give it to her. I was just doing my homework. Now, for the children who are not vaccinated at all - do they develop antibodies by exposure and would therefore show elevated S. Pneumonaie titers?

 

Elizabeth

[ShaesMom]

Oh - I most likely will not give it to her. I was just doing my homework. Now, for the children who are not vaccinated at all - do they develop antibodies by exposure and would therefore show elevated S. Pneumonaie titers?

 

Elizabeth

 

Yep, I believe that is the general thinking.

[JDuffner]

Hey Elizabeth,

 

Can you tell me in a nutshell what the document you posted on the prevnat vaccine said? I can't pull up the link. Ironically my daughter had three rounds of streep one year after KD diagnosis and IVIG. They pulled her titers and found the noeummococcal vaccine did not work and gave her prevnar...now I'm worried based on your comments.

 

JacQue

[peglem]

2 years ago, we saw an immunologist. He ran baseline pneumoccocal titiers as a test of immune function. My daughter had never recieved a pneumonia vaccine previously. So it was no surprise when those titers were low. The reason for the test was not to see if she was protected against pneumonia, but to measure the immune response. The pneumovax she received had no adjuvant...so they are not measuring the response to that. So she got the pneumovax and had a very slight rise in some of those titers. So I thought, hmmmm, see? Her immune system isn't responding. So his advice was to try again. After the 2nd vax- she had the expected 4 fold titer rise, and so we were told the immune system had been "jumpstarted" and was now responding to polysaccharide bacteria, so she wouldn't get many strep infections. So that sounded like maybe it made sense....except that she continued to have behavior exacerbations w/ +strep tests.

 

Just recently we have returned to the immunologist...he ran those titers again, and they are low again. He wants us to do the pneumovax again. I'm not going to do it again. I think if her immune system was working properly, she should still have protective levels, and that he is just trying to gather evidence to NOT diagnose with an immune deficiency.

[KeithandElizabeth]

Hi JacQue:

 

This is one topic with different opinions. There have been children who were vaccinated post PEX who had relapses from the vaccinations. I believe others on this forum can chime in with more information. If you ever decide to treat your daughter with IVIG or PEX, then I would do quite a bit of research on any type of vaccination post treatment.

 

Elizabeth

[kim]

I know this isn't really what the conversation is about, but wondered if anyone had seen this.

 

 

http://www.vaclib.org/basic/tenpenny/prevnar-price.html

 

Research published in 2005 by two Boston researchers suggests that natural immunity to pneumococcus may be more important for protecting against the disease than the vaccine. Lipsitch and Malley examined unvaccinated toddlers in the U.S., Israel, and Finland. They reported that the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease decreased by nearly 50% in children between 1 and 2 years of age. Yet, during that same time frame, antibody concentrations increased only slightly. The researchers concluded that some mechanism, other than antibody protection, confers protection against the bacteria.(4)

[bronxmom2]

Hi Peglem, I just read this again and it made me really mad! Are you still trying to plan a trip to the east coast for treatment?

 

If so you should see this immunologist in CT that some of us are seeing-- Dr. Denis Bouboulis. Maybe you could at least have a phone consult with him? This immunologist just sounds like such a bonehead compared to Dr. B.

 

2 years ago, we saw an immunologist. He ran baseline pneumoccocal titiers as a test of immune function. My daughter had never recieved a pneumonia vaccine previously. So it was no surprise when those titers were low. The reason for the test was not to see if she was protected against pneumonia, but to measure the immune response. The pneumovax she received had no adjuvant...so they are not measuring the response to that. So she got the pneumovax and had a very slight rise in some of those titers. So I thought, hmmmm, see? Her immune system isn't responding. So his advice was to try again. After the 2nd vax- she had the expected 4 fold titer rise, and so we were told the immune system had been "jumpstarted" and was now responding to polysaccharide bacteria, so she wouldn't get many strep infections. So that sounded like maybe it made sense....except that she continued to have behavior exacerbations w/ +strep tests.

 

Just recently we have returned to the immunologist...he ran those titers again, and they are low again. He wants us to do the pneumovax again. I'm not going to do it again. I think if her immune system was working properly, she should still have protective levels, and that he is just trying to gather evidence to NOT diagnose with an immune deficiency.

[peglem]

We[re scheduled to see Dr. L on the 8th of January. That's the soonest we can arrange to go. I think this immunologist believes my daughter's condition (which he considers to be autism-nother topic) is so severe that treatment wouldn't improve her quality of life appreciably..ie: make her normal. I get a lot of that. I've been up all freaken night with her and right now she's in the midst of a hellacious fit....what about MY quality of life?

 

Hi Peglem, I just read this again and it made me really mad! Are you still trying to plan a trip to the east coast for treatment?

 

If so you should see this immunologist in CT that some of us are seeing-- Dr. Denis Bouboulis. Maybe you could at least have a phone consult with him? This immunologist just sounds like such a bonehead compared to Dr. B.

 

2 years ago, we saw an immunologist. He ran baseline pneumoccocal titiers as a test of immune function. My daughter had never recieved a pneumonia vaccine previously. So it was no surprise when those titers were low. The reason for the test was not to see if she was protected against pneumonia, but to measure the immune response. The pneumovax she received had no adjuvant...so they are not measuring the response to that. So she got the pneumovax and had a very slight rise in some of those titers. So I thought, hmmmm, see? Her immune system isn't responding. So his advice was to try again. After the 2nd vax- she had the expected 4 fold titer rise, and so we were told the immune system had been "jumpstarted" and was now responding to polysaccharide bacteria, so she wouldn't get many strep infections. So that sounded like maybe it made sense....except that she continued to have behavior exacerbations w/ +strep tests.

 

Just recently we have returned to the immunologist...he ran those titers again, and they are low again. He wants us to do the pneumovax again. I'm not going to do it again. I think if her immune system was working properly, she should still have protective levels, and that he is just trying to gather evidence to NOT diagnose with an immune deficiency.