We brought Maryam to get her 1-year-old jab at the clinic today, at the age of 1 year and 19 days old. With the recent heated up discussion about the relevance of introducing vaccines to our children I can't help but feeling a bit worried too in making my mind about this. 

As a person who works in the medical field I am quite inclined to follow the current guidelines and vaccination schedule, as I have faith that the ministry must have put sufficient enough an effort in establishing the best guideline that aims to provide the best protection for our children from any health risks.

We were given the options whether to give Maryam MMR vaccination alone or MMR-V which includes immunisation against varicella as well, costing about RM50 and RM140 respectively.

I wasn't quite aware about this until my husband mentioned on our way to the clinic that one of the points to support giving MMR-V vaccine is because I work in a high risk setting where I am readily exposed to bugs and sick people. Therefore it would be a great idea to if possible cover Maryam from catching infections, as much as we can, of course after considering both benefits and risks.

At last as expected we decided to give Maryam MMR-V for her 1 year old vaccination. She will need another Varicella booster at 4 years old. When I inquired about whether it would be only Varicella vaccine given again at 4 years old, the GP says he also gives MMR-V again at that that age, if we want. Furthermore to support such action he says according to the current guideline MMR is given at 7 years old (standard 1 of primary school) just for the sake of reaching everyone as that is the youngest formal school age in Malaysia. He further adds that the ideal time of giving 2nd MMR is between 4 to 6 years of age.

In a nutshell;