How are vaccines given?

Answer 1

Vaccines are given by different methods, but most are intramuscular injections or "shots" and "jabs". These are given in the muscle using a syringe and needle.

For infants and young children, the injections are usually given in the large muscle at the outer side of the thigh or in the muscle in the buttocks. As children get older, they develop enough muscle tissue in their arms to get their shots, like most adults do, in the Deltoid muscle of the upper arm. However, the clinician giving the vaccination will make a determination on the proper site in each individual, based on their physical development. Most teens have arms muscles developed well enough to give injections like adults get, in the Deltoid muscle.

There are more and more vaccines being produced for oral or nasal administration these days, too, and many clinicians choose these less traumatic and less invasive methods for their younger patients. Most vaccines are only given to infants over 6 months old since their immune systems are not developed well enough until that time to be able to have a proper response to the vaccines.

Answer 2

Vaccinations can be given through several methods. The most popular of which is by syringe in the form of a shot. These are most often intramuscular, but some are also given as an intradermal injection (in the tissue between the layers of skin) and as subcutaneous injections. Another method is through nasal spray. And some vaccinations have been given with tines or scratches just into the top layers of the skin. There are also some oral vaccines.

A Vaccination contains pieces or weakened whole forms of the microbe that could cause infection that the immunization is created to prevent (for example a virus or a bacteria). This exposure to the germ in a way that can not make us sick, allows our bodies to learn how to neutralize the invader in advance of being infected by the real thing.

For Swine Flu A-H1N1/09 Vaccinations:

There are vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made by four different drug companies for the immunization programs in the US. Three of them are to be administered by shot form in the muscle, one is in the form of a nasal spray and one new one is administered ID (intradermal-see more in related question below-for adults only). The nasal spray is for use only by healthy people age 2 years to 49 years.

Human trials tested these approved flu vaccines under the direction of the US government agencies, drug manufacturers, and other countries' national public health organizations. The injectable vaccines use an inert ("dead") virus to trigger the immune response. The nasal spray vaccine contains live (but weakened) virus (LAIV).

Children 10 and older and adults need a single dose of the vaccine, but children ages 6 months through 9 years old need a series of two shots. When the nasal spray is used (approved for children 2 up to 10 and healthy adults), children also need a series of two doses of the intranasal vaccine. Adults and children 10 years and older who use the nasal spray only need a single dose. Those with suppressed immune systems should not use the LAIV nasal spray.

See related questions for more information.

Answer 3

By a needle