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The book I have for my childhood vaccinations is separate from the book I have for my adult vaccinations (a yellow book from the WHO). I lived in Australia for my entire childhood, and I got all the vaccines I was supposed to get.

Is it possible and worthwhile to copy the information about childhood vaccinations into the yellow book for my adult vaccinations, without having someone verify that they've seen the original document? If so, should I copy it into the main section where vaccinations are listed, or into the "Notes" section?

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  • At the end of the day the Yellow Book is for your own safety. Personally I would see a doctor to make sure that the vaccinations are still valid and don't need to be repeated.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Jul 23, 2017 at 5:58
  • Are any of your childhood innoculations mandated for international travel? If not is there a reason you want them in your yellow book?
    – user13044
    Jul 23, 2017 at 22:04

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No, assuming by yellow book from the WHO you mean the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis. Tampering with your Certificate invalidates it.

The Certificate does not exist for your own records. It is an official document which is used to prove vaccination (or to explain non-vaccination) when entering certain countries or regions. See the World Health Organization's International Health Regulations, 2005, which authorizes the Certificate.

The purpose and scope of the IHR (2005) are “to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks, and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade.”

Annex 6 of the Regulations sets out the rules for the Certificate.

  1. Persons undergoing vaccination or other prophylaxis under these Regulations shall be provided with an international certificate of vaccination or prophylaxis (hereinafter the “certificate”) in the form specified in this Annex. [...]
  2. Certificates under this Annex are valid only if the vaccine or prophylaxis used has been approved by WHO.

Unless your child vaccinations were made under the Regulation, they are not eligible to be included on the certificate.

At present only the Yellow Fever and Polio vaccines are eligible to appear in the main part of the Certificate, although there is the "Other vaccinations" page.

  1. Certificates must be signed in the hand of the clinician, who shall be a medical practitioner or other authorized health worker, supervising the administration of the vaccine or prophylaxis. The certificate must also bear the official stamp of the administering centre; however, this shall not be an accepted substitute for the signature.

This may be hard to obtain retrospectively.

  1. Any amendment of this certificate, or erasure, or failure to complete any part of it, may render it invalid.
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    My yellow book has multiple sections. There's the section for official stamped certificates that would be accepted worldwide, such as for Yellow Fever certification, and the "other vaccinations" area, for recording vaccinations for reference purposes but without the same official status. Is there anything that says you can't write entries into the "other vaccinations" part as long as you leave the official certificate part alone? I've had a nurse transfer some childhood vaccination records to my yellow book for me, but never done it myself.
    – Zach Lipton
    Jul 23, 2017 at 10:04

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