Patient's question:
I am 36 years old this year. Recently, I have been feeling unwell. During the day, I sometimes feel dizzy, and it has affected my work. I can't sleep at night, and the medicine I took isn't very effective. Can Japanese encephalitis be vaccinated in the summer?Doctor's answer:
The encephalitis vaccines currently used in our country are all domestically produced vaccines, with no imported vaccines. There are two main production processes for domestic encephalitis vaccines: one is the live attenuated vaccine (which contains live encephalitis virus), and the other is the inactivated vaccine. The live attenuated vaccine's instructions include a note stating 【Not recommended for use during the epidemic season】, while the inactivated vaccine's instructions do not have this note. The difference in the instructions for these two types of encephalitis vaccines is based on the following logic: If a person contracts encephalitis after being vaccinated with the live attenuated encephalitis vaccine, it may be attributed to the live attenuated encephalitis vaccine. Since it is difficult to rule out the possibility of the live attenuated encephalitis vaccine causing encephalitis, it is not recommended for use during the encephalitis epidemic season to avoid suspicion.