Vaccine advice for applicant

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Numpostrophe

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Hey everyone,
I am starting a new medication for eczema and was advised by the pharmacist and dermatologist to get needed immunizations now because the medication is known to lower vaccine response. I realize that medical schools require stricter vaccine requirements than undergrad (for which I was compliant) and I'm wondering if it would be best to get those now before potentially matriculating in 2023.

Do any medical students have a list of their requirements? I assume I'll need Tdap, a meningitis booster, and potentially others.
 
Hey everyone,
I am starting a new medication for eczema and was advised by the pharmacist and dermatologist to get needed immunizations now because the medication is known to lower vaccine response. I realize that medical schools require stricter vaccine requirements than undergrad (for which I was compliant) and I'm wondering if it would be best to get those now before potentially matriculating in 2023.

Do any medical students have a list of their requirements? I assume I'll need Tdap, a meningitis booster, and potentially others.
Hepatitis B titers, and COVID-19 vaccination for sure. Flu, most probably.
 
Honestly, the med school requirements are pretty similar to what are recommended for "normal" people (i.e. everyone should get a Tdap booster at regular intervals). I might start with your PCP, see what vaccines they think are recommended, and get those.

Also in general they're going to look for your vaccine record. While it's possible for a few they may ask for titers, the likely remedy is just that they would make you get a booster. If your titers are low for a medically documented reason they're probably not going to kick you out.

Most importantly, get vaccines because it is good for your health.
 
Thanks everyone. I don't mind getting vaccines I just wanted to be proactive before their effectiveness is diminished somewhat.
 
It’s so annoying to be honest. Med schools require a specific titer level and if you don’t have it you have to get the whole series again. Yeah, I’m sure a hep B titer of 9.7 is really less effective than an arbitrary cutoff like 10.2

In other words, make sure your titers are relatively high and if not start your dosing now.
 
It's very school dependent, you prob have all the basic ones, hep B is the only complicated one since it's spread out every 3 months until your titers are high enough ? Though some schools make that optional too. Also, I believe you can wait until you're accepted and figure it out exactly since I haven't seen a place yet that won't let you start as long as you've started taking whatever your titers are low on. I was looking into this too and came to the conclusion there's not enough of a consensus to make it worthwhile to do anything in advance.
 
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