Can children who are sick receive vaccines?
Some parents may be concerned that children with acute illnesses are less likely to respond to vaccines or are more likely to develop severe reactions to vaccines than are healthy children. Alternatively, some parents may believe that children who are ill shouldn’t further burden an immune system already committed to fighting an infection. However, vaccine-specific antibody responses and rates of vaccine-associated adverse reactions of children with mild or moderate illnesses are comparable to those of healthy children. For example, the presence of upper respiratory tract infections, ear infections, fever, skin infections or diarrhea does not affect the level of protective antibodies induced by immunization.
