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Vaccinations and immunisation

Many childhood illnesses can be avoided through vaccines or immunisations. Most routine vaccines are safe for children living with HIV and are recommended. Your child should definitely receive the MMR vaccine, which is the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccination.

 ‘Live vaccines’ (where a weakened or killed version of a virus is injected, so that the body builds up an immunity to it – the smallpox vaccine is an example of this) are not, however, generally considered safe.

Flu vaccines, including the swine flu vaccine, are considered safe for children with HIV as they are not ‘live’ vaccines.

This content was checked for accuracy at the time it was written. It may have been superseded by more recent developments. NAM recommends checking whether this is the most current information when making decisions that may affect your health.