Originally appeared: October 2020 Newsletter
What vaccinations should my child with non-sitter (type 1) SMA have?
The Standards of Care (SoC) recommend that all children with SMA should have the ‘standard’ immunizations plus the pneumococcal vaccine and (from the age of six months) the yearly influenza (flu) vaccination. They also recommend that children up to the age of two are vaccinated against a common virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which can cause breathing problems. These vaccinations are only given once a month during bronchiolitis season (October to March).
You may want to try to avoid your child having direct contact with others who have coughs and colds, but remember that it is impossible to prevent your child from catching all possible viruses.
What vaccinations should my child with sitter (type 2) or walker (type 3) SMA have?
The SoC recommend that children with SMA should have the same vaccinations that are recommended for any child in Canada. The only extra vaccinations are the yearly flu vaccination and the pneumococcal vaccine (over the age of two, this should be the vaccine with wider coverage, known as ‘23 valent’).
REFERENCES
Finkel RS, Mercuri E, Meyer OH, Simonds AK, Schroth MK, Graham RJ, Kirschner J, Iannaccone ST, Crawford TO, Woods S, Muntoni F, Wirth B, Montes J, Main M, Mazzone ES, Vitale M, Snyder B, Quijano-Roy S, Bertini E, Davis RH, Qian Y,Sejersen T; SMA Care group. Diagnosis and management of spinal muscular atrophy: Part 2: Pulmonary and acute care; medications, supplements and immunizations; other organ systems; and ethics. Neuromuscul Disord. 2018 Mar;28(3):197-207. doi: 10.1016/j.nmd.2017.11.004. Epub 2017 Nov 23
Sourced from SMA UK, December 2018.
https://smauk.org.uk/recent-diagnosis-sma-type-1
https://smauk.org.uk/recent-diagnosis-sma-type-2
https://smauk.org.uk/recent-diagnosis-sma-type-3