The introduction of a mixed vaccine for children's national vaccination..."Four vaccinations completed"

From January next year, a six-valent mixed vaccine will be introduced to prevent six infectious diseases at the same time in national vaccinations for children.

The hexavalent mixed vaccine is a new vaccine that can prevent hepatitis B in addition to the five infectious diseases that can be prevented with the existing pentavalent mixed vaccine: diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, and type b hemophilus influenza.

If a 6-valent mixed vaccine is introduced, the six infectious disease vaccinations required six times when the existing 5-valent mixed vaccine is reduced to four times.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expected that the introduction of a hexavalent mixed vaccine would shorten the vaccination schedule and frequency, increasing the convenience of inoculation for infants and caregivers and reducing the burden of visiting the inoculation institution.

However, in the case of children born with hepatitis B positive mothers, it is necessary to prevent vertical infection of hepatitis B, so vaccination is carried out with a 5-valent mixed vaccine as before.

Also, at the beginning of vaccination, each medical institution may have a different vaccine retention situation, and asked medical institutions to check the availability of a hexavalent mixed vaccine before vaccination.