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Anaphylaxis as an adverse event following immunisation

¹ University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
² University Children’s Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
³ Pädiatrische Infektiologie, Universitätskinderklinik, Düsseldorf, Germany
⁴ Vaccine Institute and Child Health, St George’s, University of London, UK

Correspondence to:
Dr Mich Lajeunesse
Institute of Child Life and Health, UBHT Education Centre, Upper Maudlin Street, Bristol BS2 8AE, UK; mich.lajeunesse@bristol.ac.uk 4 January 2007

Keywords: immunisation; vaccination; anaphylaxis; adverse event; hypersensitivity

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Anaphylaxis is an acute hypersensitivity reaction with multi-organ system involvement that can rapidly progress to a severe life-threatening reaction. It has been difficult to provide a robust clinical definition of anaphylaxis because of the non-specificity of symptoms and variability of presentation. Anaphylaxis can occur to a variety of allergens, and is a rare, but well recognised adverse event following immunisation (AEFI). Several groups have recently tried to provide a working definition of anaphylaxis. This editorial reviews these definitions and discusses the challenges for vaccine safety in reliably identifying anaphylaxis as an AEFI.

Anaphylaxis may occur following exposure to allergens from a variety of sources including food, aeroallergens, venom, drugs, and immunisations. Vaccines are a mixture of compounds and allergic sensitisation can occur to any component. Individuals may be sensitised to the vaccine antigens, adjuvants (e.g., alum), excipients used in the manufacturing process (e.g., gelatin, neomycin) or a latex stopper . . . [Full text of this article]