How long it takes for antibodies to develop after a flu vaccination?

Answer 1

If you are asking about an allergic reaction, they usually occur within minutes of receipt of the injection or within the hour afterward. This is one reason that the newest guidelines say that some people with Allergies to the traces of egg in the vaccine can get the vaccination anyway, as long as they are monitored closely afterward. See the related question below for more on that.

If you are asking about a reaction like the local irritation, tenderness, and redness at the site of the injection, those are usually noticed the next day and will go away typically in 3 days or so after. That type of inflammatory reaction is not an allergic response, it is part of the process our bodies use to attack foreign substances that have invaded our bodies.

Answer 2

In healthy adults, teens, and children over age 10, the immunization will be produced by the immune response to the antigen in the vaccine in approximately 2 weeks after the inoculation.

In children under 10, usually an initial dose of the vaccine is given, and, after a waiting period of around a month to allow their immune systems to respond, a second dose is required to produce the full immunization by their "inexperienced" immune systems. Full immunity should be accomplished within approximately two weeks of the last vaccination in the series of two, and they should then have developed an appropriate level of immunity for protection against this strain of flu.

Because their immune systems are too immature for vaccinations, babies under 6 months old can not be vaccinated, and influenza in infants this young can result in death. If they are breast fed, then when their mothers get a vaccination (it is safe and recommended by obstetricians for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers), the mother's antibodies from the immunization will be released in the mother's milk to immediately help protect the baby. So there should be no delay in a new mother having the annual vaccinations; not only so breast feeding can provide the antibodies directly to the infant in the milk, but also to protect the mother from getting the flu and then giving it to the infant herself.

Answer 3

IT takes 2 weeks