Adverse effects of vaccinations

The adverse effects of vaccines include local reactions and systemic symptoms or illnesses. Local reactions are frequent, most often presenting as transient pain, redness, edema and/or nodule. Fever of short duration is the main systemic symptom, generally occurring within 24-48 hours following vaccination. Some vaccines have recognized specific adverse effects such as thrombocytopenic purpura for the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, and febrile convulsions for the pertussis vaccine. Hepatitis B vaccine and Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine have been respectively suspected to be responsible for neurological demyelinating disease and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, but large-scale epidemiological studies have failed to confirm these allegations. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.