A Dose of Pneumococcal Vaccine

For the past several months, I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about the flu vaccine and pneumonia vaccine but I just ignore them because I don’t want to go to the hospital yet. My son and I rarely go out of the house so I just felt that we don’t need those vaccines. It was funny because I thought my son has Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine or PCV7 (now PCV13) so booster shot na lang naman ang need niya but when I checked his baby book, my son has no PCV7 pala. 

Then I remembered that 13 years ago, I decided to skip this vaccine because we can’t afford it and this vaccine is quite new to me. During those times, life is so hard and we are just lucky that part of my husband’s company health insurance is a yearly medicine benefit (vaccine included). We use that benefit for my son’s vaccines except for PCV7, we all know na napakamahal ng PCV7 so doon pa lang mauubos na yung benefit. To give you an idea, PCV13 is a series of 4 doses given to infants who are 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, and 1 year old. 

Moving on, my husband and I are both fully vaccinated but my son has no COVID19 vaccine yet because it is not available (sa kids) in our country and I don’t know when it will be available. We still don’t have a registration form for kids in our place. And because of that, I decided to get Pneumococcal Vaccine. 

Read: I’ve Got My First Jab of COVID19 Vaccine 

But like I said, I don’t want to go to the hospital yet so I asked my friend for recommendations. My friend told me about the pediatric clinic where they got their vaccines so I told my husband about it. Thank God that there is a Saturday schedule so my husband and son don’t need to be absent from work and school. My husband just made an appointment online and we scheduled it one month after my second dose of Moderna vaccine. 

The rate of pneumonia vaccine varies so just check with the hospital or clinic. With regard to our experience, when we asked about the rates, the clinic did not give us the exact rate, ito lang binigay nila.

Pneumococcal Vaccine Rate in the Philippines 

Kids: PCV13 ranges from PHP3800 to PHP5,000 

Adult: Pneumovax ranges from PHP3,200 to PHP4000 

We live in the province so baka mas mahal kapag Metro Manila. But I think the rate is already acceptable kaysa magAsian Hospital pa kami (sa pedia ng anak ko) pero masakit pa rin sa bulsa because three years ago, we no longer have medicine benefits. But for peace of mind and added protection, go lang. My son only needs one dose, unlike sa amin na may another dose ulit after 5 years. 

Common Side Effects of Pneumonia Vaccine 

Pain on injection site 

Muscle or joint aches 

Fever 

Chills 

Headache 

Nausea 

Vomiting 

Stiffness of the arm or the leg where the vaccine was injected 

Weakness 

Fatigue 

Skin Rash 

Fortunately, the only side effect that we experienced is pain on the injection site pero mild lang compared sa pain na naramdaman namin sa COVID19 vaccine. The pain subsided in less than 24 hours. 

“Life or death for a young child too often depends on whether he is born in a country where vaccines are available or not.” - Nelson Mandela