Objectives: More and more premature infants were born worldwide that are suffering from various complications, vaccination for whom is often delayed in China. We aim to describe current vaccination recommendations in practice, immunization status, and vaccination safety for premature infants in Zhejiang.
Methods: The demographic information, medical records of treatments, and adverse events following immunization (AEFI) history were collected from infants' parents by questionnaire in the Vaccination Consultation Clinic(VCC). Vaccination data were retrieved from Zhejiang Provincial Immunization Information System. The information of AEFI was collected from the Chinese National Adverse Event Following Immunization Information System.
Results: A total of 1515 premature infants visiting the VCC were included in the study. The majority (65.94%) of them were under 7 months. 47.59% of premature infants were advised to receive normal vaccinations, while 45.94% were advised to defer a specific vaccination and 6.47% were advised to defer all vaccinations. A total of 807 infants received 7187 vaccine doses were administered and only seven cases experienced mild and self-limiting adverse reactions (9.74/10,000). No uncommon or serious side effects were reported.
Conclusion: Most premature infants visiting the VCC did not receive vaccines on time. The majority of them can be safely vaccinated according to the national-recommended schedule.
Keywords: Premature infants; immunization status; recommendations; safety; vaccination.