New childhood vaccine combo linked to convulsions.

[pnwmom]

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/Childhood_vaccine_linked_to_convuls_02272008.html

Children suffered higher rates of fever-related convulsions when they got a Merck & Co. combination vaccine instead of two separate shots, according to a new study presented Wednesday.


The results prompted a federal advisory panel on vaccines to water down their preference for the combo vaccine ProQuad, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella as well as chickenpox.

In the study of children ages 12 months through 23 months, the rate of seizures was twice as high in toddlers who got ProQuad, compared with those who got one shot for chickenpox and one for the three other diseases.

The risk translates to about one extra case of convulsion for every 2,000 doses of ProQuad given said Dr. Nicola Klein, who lead the federally funded study. She presented the data at a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The study focused on children who develop fevers and then go into convulsions — an occurrence that frightens parents but usually has no lingering consequences. There were no deaths in the new study.

SNIP

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Another reason to be careful about combining too many vaccines at once. My personal experience tells me that this kind of problem is underreported. One of my children, after having the old DTP vaccine, had partial seizures several times a day for a week after his vaccine -- but his fever, which lasted for the whole week, was never higher than 102. My doctor didn't report the reaction, because he said it must not have been caused by the vaccine -- since the vaccine, he claimed, didn't cause symptoms that last for a week. Well, if doctors don't report anomalous reactions -- precisely because they're anomalous -- then how will the FDA find out about them?