Saar Kuzi
Alessandra Coutinho Fernandes
William Cope
Richard Tapping
Kashif Ahmad
Reda Sadki
Shubhra Kanti Karmaker Santu
Adam P Rusch
Elle Meisner
Nereyda Ochoa
Landon J. Kunzelman
James DotimasFA16 Immunization Module’s Updates
Adverse Reactions to Vaccines
Similar to what is normally thought of as a drug, vaccines have side-effects. These reactions can range from mild to severe, with an overwhelming majority of people only experiencing mild effects. Most vaccines have associated minor swelling, itching and redness at the site of injection. This inflammation is usually mild and will dissipate within a day or two. Some vaccines, such as influenza and Tdap, have mild flu- or cold-like symptoms (nausea, ache, fever). These reactions are part of the reason why some people refuse their yearly flu shot--it makes them feel worse.
Moderate to severe reactions can involve systemic responses such as varying degrees of anaphylaxis. Death from a vaccine is incredibly rare. Since the safety of vaccines is so high, the level of reported adverse effects is small. The risk can be only one in a pool of several orders of magnitude of people.
http://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/tools/vaccinfosheets/en/
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/side-effects.htm
There are safety risks with pretty much any part of life, with those of medical interventions being one we commonly see in the media. Perhaps another approach do discussing why vaccines are a good option relative to contracting the diseases they prevent would be to discuss the financial costs. Showing patients the cost breakdown of vaccine plus a few side effects (so cost of vaccine plus some cold medicine, tylenol, and ice packs) versus the cost of contracting the preventable disease (hospitalization) may be another way to reach the public's attention.
It is important for people to know that vaccines do carry some risk of adverse reactions. However, those reactions are usually mild and are much less severe compared to if a person got the disease they are being vaccinated for. Still, patients need to be educated on what reactions to look out for and what symptoms require them to seek medical care immediately in case they have a rare, serious reaction to the vaccine.
@Michael Reed it is interesting that there are different types of reactions to vaccinations. I generally have a mild reaction that includes the swelling and redness at the injection site when I have my yearly flu vaccination, but I have a family member that experiences the flu like symptoms when they are vaccinated every year for the flu.
On another note, I found an abstract that indicated there could be adverse reactions due to the storage of the vaccine and I wonder how many of the adverse reactions people experience are due to the improper storage, handling, or administration (I don’t expect you to find the answer, just thought it would be interesting to know). I can imagine there is a protocol to follow to ensure this doesn’t happen, but there are always events that can lead to errors in the handling or administration of vaccinations.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12783762