Which vaccinations are recommended for babies in Luxembourg, when are they given, and which are reimbursed?

Luxembourg's schedule is based on the recommendations of the Superior Council of Infectious Diseases (CSMI) and proposed by the Health Directorate. For babies and toddlers, the national vaccination schedule (opens in a new tab) currently recommends:

• Newborns, September to February: a preventive RSV treatment against bronchiolitis, ideally before leaving the maternity ward. The schedule gives RSV vaccination of the mother at 32 to 36 weeks of pregnancy as the alternative. Babies under 6 months who missed it can still get it in that season.
• 2 months: combined vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Hib, polio and hepatitis B, plus rotavirus and pneumococcus.
• 3 months: rotavirus, meningococcus B, pneumococcus.
• 4 months: combined vaccine, pneumococcus, rotavirus.
• 5 months: meningococcus B.
• 11 months: combined vaccine, pneumococcus.
• 12 months: MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox), meningococcus B.
• 13 months: meningococcus ACWY.
• 15 to 23 months: second MMRV.

From age 2, a seasonal flu vaccine is recommended before winter, and a booster follows at 5 to 6 years. Premature babies and children with some health conditions have specific recommendations, so talk to your paediatrician.

All vaccines in the national schedule are free. The state buys them and supplies them to doctors, who give them in their surgery or in hospital. You only pay the consultation, which the CNS reimburses at 100% for children. Do not buy schedule vaccines at a pharmacy on prescription: they will not be reimbursed. The exception is the injectable flu vaccine for children who cannot or do not want to have the nasal one, which you collect free from a pharmacy with a prescription. Travel vaccines and vaccines outside the programme are at your own cost.

Your doctor records each vaccination in the yellow vaccination booklet and, with your consent, in the electronic vaccination record.