MedHeadlines - May 28, 2008
Medical guidelines in the call for each child to receive about 27 doses of vaccine before turning two. Booster shots are often recommended until the child turns six. These vaccines protect the child against 15 diseases that are preventable with a proper vaccination schedule. A lot of the time and for many reasons, however, that vaccination schedule isn't maintained adequately and vaccines get missed or delayed. Until now, a very complicated set of calculations needed to be made before administering any missed or late vaccine doses. Many factors, including the child's age, time since last vaccine, and which other vaccines, if any, are to be administered at the same time, must all be taken into consideration before continuing the vaccine schedule. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, researchers have developed an online tool that helps parents and pediatricians stay on schedule. After routine data is entered, the tool quickly structures an immunization schedule based on the child's age, previous vaccination history, and time elapsed since the last vaccine. In the case of missed or late vaccinations, the software program can devise the optimum time to resume the vaccination schedule.
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