Difference Between Painful And Painless Vaccine For A Baby?

Posted on Mon, 4 Feb 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 4 Feb 2013 Answered on

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : Hello Dr,which one is better between painful or painless vaccination injection for my 6 weeks baby

Answered by Dr. Kaushik K Murthy (2 hours later)

Hello, thanks for writing to us.

Went through your query in detail.

First let me explain the difference between painless and painful vaccine and the brands available, after the explanation, it ll be easier for you to make a choice.

Painless vaccine- brands available are pentaxim, tripacel,
The meaning behind painless vaccine is that it is having acellular-( no nucleus) pertussis component(the organism responsible for whooping cough). so the pain and fever will be less. it is not completely pain and fever free. The immunogenicity produced will be slightly less. Cost wise , a bit expensive

Painful vaccine is whole cell pertussis component. Pain and fever will be more, immunogenicity is more, cost wise, lesser than the painless vaccine.

Both the vaccines are good enough.If you see comfort wise for the baby , painless vaccine is better, one more added advantage in the painless vaccine is that , it is even having injectable polio component included in it.

Hope i have cleared your query, kindly follow up for further queries. regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar