Media Centre

Key points

• At twelve months a baby is given three injections at the maternal and child health centre.
• One is the pneumococcal vaccine, which the baby has already had at 2 months and 4 months. The other two — MMR and varicella — are new to the baby.
• Because MMR and varicella are live vaccines, the baby’s reaction to them is somewhat greater.
• Besides the usual redness at the injection site and fever, a rash is also a common reaction to them.
• Importantly, the fever and rash from these two only appear one to two weeks after the injection. So a baby who develops a fever one or two weeks later with no other symptoms is showing a normal reaction to the vaccine, and mothers need not worry unduly.