Vaccines, like many other medicines and medical devices, follow the development of science and technology, and it is quite logical that with the development of new technologies and new scientific achievements, we now manage to provide protection against many infectious diseases that, say, 10, 15, 20 or more years ago we could not, he said. is Senad Begić, Ph.D., senior consultant for health at UNICEF, in the Colors of the Morning.
The composition of vaccines, says Begić, is something that UNICEF has identified as information that parents want to know and as one of the parents' priorities.
"Which is understandable, and with the support of the European Union, we decided to work on empowering parents when it comes to making decisions for vaccination. What is in the calendar of mandatory vaccines is significantly different, technologically advanced compared to 30 or 40 years ago. Also what is very important, the number of antigens found in the vaccines that children receive today during the first year of life has been reduced by more than 10 times, which basically means that with various technologies we have managed to reject all those unnecessary antigens from vaccines and to reduce the so-called immune load" , Begić said.
He points out that none of the vaccines given to children contain mercury.
"Aluminum is found in several vaccines that are currently used in Montenegro and which are mainly given to slightly older children. Aluminum salts are so-called enhancers that serve to give a slightly better immune response that the antigen itself could not produce. It is mostly found in vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus and against tetanus, and these are all vaccines that are given to some older ages," says Begić.
The rule, he says, is that vaccines are slightly delayed for premature children who weigh less than two kilograms at birth.
"Otherwise, all prematurely born children have the same approach when it comes to immunization as regularly born children, so only the chronological age of the child after birth is taken into account when which vaccine will be given".
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