Understanding vaccination certificate: What is written in the vaccination certificate?
The vaccination certificate is an important document that contains an overview of vaccinations already carried out and notes which vaccinations are still due. Find out here where you get the vaccination certificate, what exactly is entered in it and when you should have the vaccination book with you.
What is the vaccination certificate?
The vaccination certificate is a small yellow book in which all vaccinations carried out must be noted by the attending physician. The official name is “International Certificates of Vaccination and Vaccination Book”. The trilingual document is prepared according to the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) and is also valid abroad due to the standardized design.
The international vaccination passport has replaced the former white leaflet card for some time. However, this old version of the vaccination certificate is still valid.
What is the purpose of the vaccination certificate?
The Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) of the Robert Koch Institute recommends a number of basic vaccinations for young children. Since many of theserecommended immunizationsare carried out in several partial vaccinations, it is often difficult for you as a parent to keep track of which vaccinations are still pending or when the next appointment is due. Even in an emergency, for example if an acute tetanus infection is suspected after an injury, it is important to know quickly what vaccination protection is available.
The vaccination certificate is helpful here, as it gives you and the attending physician a quick overview of which vaccination protection already exists and what still needs to be vaccinated against. So you can be sure that your child always has the optimal protection and prevent you or your child from being vaccinated twice.
The vaccination certificate can also be important for planned trips abroad. In some countries where vaccination against certain infectious diseases, such as yellow fever, is compulsory, the identity card with proof of appropriate immunization is required for entry.
Where do you get the vaccination certificate?
The vaccination certificate is free of charge. You can usually get it from your family doctor, but alternatively you can request it from the local health department or the German Green Cross.
In some cases, the vaccination card is also issued by the respective clinic shortly after birth, as the child had to be vaccinated immediately after birth due to an acute threat of an infectious disease. This is the case, for example, with an infection with hepatitis B orchickenpox, usually transmitted by the mother.
If you lose your vaccination certificate, you can easily have a new vaccination certificate issued, for example by your paediatrician. This has all carried out vaccinations additionally stored in the medical record and can thus easily create a duplicate of the lost vaccination record.
Understanding the vaccination record
The vaccination certificate is internationally standardized according to the specifications of the WHO and contains the most important data on the existing vaccination protection. So you can be sure that every doctor, even abroad, can read the vaccination record and correctly assess the status of the individual vaccinations.
On the cover page of the vaccination certificate, the personal data of the owner are noted. This is especially useful for parents of several children to avoid confusion.
When the doctor carries out a vaccination, he enters the following data in the vaccination certificate:
- Name of the disease being vaccinated against: Some diseases are abbreviated with letters to facilitate entry in the vaccination certificate. Within the recommended vaccinations are tetanus (T), diphtheria (D or d), whooping cough (aP or ap), Haemophilus influenzae type B (HiB), polio (IPV), hepatitis B (HB) and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). A combination of the individual abbreviations, such as multiple vaccination against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough (DTaP or TdaP) is also possible.
- Date of vaccination: So you and your doctor can always understand when, for example, a booster of the respective vaccination is necessary.
- Trade name of the vaccine as well as the so-called batch designation: If there are side effects associated with the vaccine, it can be traced exactly which vaccine it was.
- Name and address of the vaccination doctor, signature and stamp of the practice or clinic: If, after a change of doctor or vaccination abroad, questions arise that are not apparent from the vaccination certificate, the doctor concerned can be easily reached.
In addition, other useful information may appear in the vaccination certificate. If, for example due to a negligent doctor or an oversight, no proof of vaccination protection against a certain infectious disease is noted in the vaccination certificate, but you are sure that you have already been vaccinated against the corresponding disease, a so-called antibody examination can be carried out. A blood test is used to determine whether sufficient antibodies are present in the blood and thus whether there is vaccination protection. Unnecessary vaccinations can thus be avoided and the result of the examination can be noted in the vaccination certificate for the future.
Passive vaccination in the vaccination certificate
For emergencies in which rapid passive vaccination is necessary, information on any chronic diseases, allergies and other risks associated withvaccinationmay also be entered in the vaccination certificate.