Hexavalent vaccines

There are several schedule options for hexavalent vaccine. The schedule recommendation for hexavalent consists of three primary doses, starting as early as six weeks of age, with a minimum interval of four weeks between doses.^{Go to footnote 11, Go to footnote 22}

For the primary vaccination schedule, the pentavalent vaccines can be replaced with either hexa-wP or hexa-aP, including primary schedules administered at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age. 

For booster doses, countries may opt to continue to use the vaccines currently used for these doses. However, if there is a switch from an wP-containing vaccine to aP-containing vaccine for the primary schedule, additional booster doses of the pertussis vaccine may be required as recommended in the WHO pertussis position paper.

For the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine, the monovalent hepatitis B vaccine should continue to be used.

During transition, wP-containing pentavalent and hexavalent vaccines are considered interchangeable, but countries should ensure completion of the recommended IPV schedule, including IPV2 where applicable.^{Go to footnote 11}

Countries currently using bOPV in their vaccination schedules and are categorized to be at medium or high readiness to move to IPV-only schedules may reduce the number of bOPV doses from three to two and administer them with the second and third doses of IPV.^{Go to footnote 33}