OAKLAND, Calif., June 28 /PRNewswire/ — The combination
vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox (MMRV) is
associated with double the risk of febrile seizures for 1- to
2-year-old children compared with same-day administration of the
separate vaccine for MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and the
varicella (V) vaccine for chicken pox, according to a Kaiser
Permanente Division of Research study appearing online in the
journal Pediatrics. A febrile seizure is a brief,
fever-related convulsion but it does not lead to epilepsy or
seizure disorders, researchers explained.
Funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the study
analyzed 459,000 children 12 to 23 months old from numerous health
systems across the United States
receiving their first dose of measles-containing vaccine and found
MMRV to be associated with a two-fold increased risk of fever and
febrile seizures 7-10 days after vaccination compared with same-day
administration of a separate shot for MMR and the varicella
(chickenpox) vaccine. This study found that the risk for a febrile
seizure after the first dose of MMRV vaccine is low, although it is
higher than after MMR vaccine and varicella vaccine administered as
separate injections.
The study found no evidence of an increased febrile seizure risk
after any measles vaccine beyond 7-10 days post vaccination.
“Because the risk of febrile seizure is higher for the
quadrivalent (combination) vaccine, providers recommending MMRV
should communicate to parents that it increases the risk of fever
and febrile seizure over that already associated with
measles-containing vaccines,” said the study’s lead investigator
Nicola Klein, MD, Ph.D., co-director
of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center. “But concerned
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