Vaccinations

Question

My son is 7 months old and was born with meconium ileus. He has F508del-p.Glu92X. He has had surgery twice so far. By now, he is doing well, although he is being treated against his disease, of course.

My question now: since my son has had to endure quite a bit with his health, does he have to be vaccinated according to guidelines on top of all this? Is his immune system not able to boost itself, are these vaccinations really necessary?

Thank you for your answer.

Answer

Hello,

you are saying that your 7-month-old son was born with meconium ileus and that he has had to have surgery twice so far. Cystic fibrosis is proven in your son by the evidence of the F508del/p.Glu92X mutations. You are asking whether he really needs to get all standard vaccinations. You would like to spare him the burdens, since he has already been through a lot.

The mutations detected in your son suggest that one can expect a full clinical picture of cystic fibrosis for him, involving the respiratory system and the digestive tract including the pancreas.

It is amazing how well newborns and babies can take surgery as long as there are no complications. You should certainly grant your little one about four weeks of rest after the last surgery. After that, all standard vaccinations should be done. Since they cover diseases against which a person can only develop immunity through vaccination or by going through the disease, you would risk for your son to go through these diseases if you do not do the vaccinations. I would strictly advise you against this, since each of these diseases goes along with accompanying disorders of the respiratory system. You would thus risk that your son’s lungs will suffer preventable damages.

So do trust your son’s robustness and get him all vaccinations. You will keep your child from unnecessary agony.

Kind regards,
Dr. H.-G. Posselt

03.11.2011