Latest COVID-19 Update: February 2022

Latest news on Covid 19 Vaccinations and Anti-Viral treatments for Children and Young people with Paediatric Rheumatological conditions.

As you will be aware, there have been lots of developments around the vaccination roll out and some new anti-viral treatments. You may like to know how this affects your child or young person.

The vast majority of children and young people with paediatric rheumatological conditions like JIA are now being treated like the rest of their peers because they are not considered at any greater risk and can follow the standard medical advice for children their age. For most of those aged 12-15 this means they will be offered 2 doses of vaccine.
For some children and young people on certain medications/doses, a 3rd dose of the vaccination (a full dose not a booster dose) and then a 4th booster dose are being offered. This will usually be at the discretion of the patient’s GP (sometimes with input from specialist teams) and will be according to rules laid out in a document called the ‘green book’ which all health professionals have access to.
There are some new anti-viral treatments (anti viral monoclonal antibody treatments or ‘MAb’s) that are being used now for those at the highest risk of complications from Covid 19 or severe disease. In children and young people, any cases where these may be needed would be referred to a specialist team including Paediatric Infectious Disease Specialists for assessment. It is thought to be highly unlikely that children and young people with paediatric rheumatological conditions would require these as in general they are not very unwell with Covid.

Covid 19 Vaccine Update for 5-11 year olds

For some children in this age group who are on certain medications/doses, 2 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be offered (these are smaller doses than the adult doses).These are to be given at least 8 weeks apart. This will usually be at the discretion of the patient’s GP (with input from specialist teams) and will be according to criteria laid out in a document called the ‘green book’ which all health professionals have access to.

If you wish to see a table with more detailed information about doses, eligibility and timing across the different age groups you can follow this link here.

You can find further information about vaccination and some useful guides for children and young people here and if you have specific concerns about your own individual child/young person please speak to your paediatric rheumatologist team for further advice.

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