Combo MMRV vaccine linked to 2-fold risk of seizures
By ANIMonday, June 28, 2010
WASHINGTON - Combination vaccines of measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox (MMRV) pose twice as much risk of febrile seizures for 1- to 2-year-olds than same-day administration of the separate vaccine for MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and the varicella (V) vaccine for chicken pox, according to a new study.
Electronic health records study of 459,000 children sparked the new CDC recommendations.
A febrile seizure is a brief, fever-related convulsion but it does not lead to epilepsy or seizure disorders, researchers explained.
“But concerned parents should understand that the risk for febrile seizures after any measles-containing vaccine is low: less than 1 febrile seizure per 1,000 injections,” said the study’s lead investigator Nicola Klein, MD, Ph.D., co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center.
“And though febrile seizures are a very scary event for a family, they are not dangerous and do not lead to later epilepsy or seizure disorders,” said Randy Bergen, MD, a Kaiser Permanente pediatrician and infectious disease specialist at Kaiser Permanente-Walnut Creek.
“The Vaccine Safety Datalink, which we used to conduct this study, is a premiere example of how different managed care organizations can leverage their electronic medical records to improve vaccine safety and monitoring,” Klein said.
The study is published online in the journal Pediatrics. (ANI)
