Administration of other vaccines on the same day as an allergy shot
Question:
Reviewed: 5/8/2019
9/23/2013
When administering Immunotherapy, can the child have other vaccines given on the same day? For example flu shot, HPV, Dtap, VZV, MMR? Can they be given in a different location on the same day? If not how many days after or before receiving an IT can vaccine be given?
Answer:
We do give immunizations with certain vaccines on the same day as we administer allergy injections. However, we only do so when we are fairly certain that the patient will not have an adverse reaction to the immunization. An example of this is a patient who has received previous immunizations to influenza without adverse effect, and who comes in for his/her allergy injection when flu vaccinations are indicated. If, however, there is any question that a patient might have a reaction to the vaccination, we suggest administering the two injections on different dates so that, if a reaction did occur, we would know which injection was the culprit. One day separating the two injections should be sufficient in this case.
I might mention, parenthetically, that this approach to combined injections is a personal approach and does not represent any consensus opinion. Other allergists-immunologists may well take a different approach.
Thank you again for your inquiry and we hope this response is helpful to you.
Sincerely,
Phil Lieberman, M.D.