children s health issues
Childhood Vaccinations
Vaccine Safety
Vaccines that are approved for clinical use are generally safe and effective. No vaccine (or other medication) is 100% effective and 100% safe. A few vaccinated children do not become immune, and a few develop side effects. Most often, the side effects are minor, such as pain and redness at the injection site, a rash, or a mild fever. Very rarely, there are more serious problems. Before a new vaccine can be licensed, it, like any medical product, is tested in How Doctors Try to Learn What Works . Such trials compare the new vaccine to a placebo or to a previously existing vaccine for the same disease to assess whether the vaccine is effective and identify common side effects. However, some side effects are too rare to be detected in any reasonably sized clinical trial and do not become apparent until after a vaccine is used routinely in many people. Thus, a surveillance system called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (see VAERS is a safety program cosponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is used to collect reports from people who believe that they had a side effect after a recent vaccination and from health care professionals who identify certain possible side effects after a vaccine was given, even if they are unsure the effects are related to the vaccine. Thus, the existence of a VAERS report is not proof that a vaccine caused a certain side effect. VAERS is simply a system for collecting data about things thatmightbe side effects. Then, the FDA can further evaluate the concern by comparing how often the possible side effect occurred in people who were vaccinated to how often it occurred in people who were not vaccinated. To help people evaluate the risks and benefits of vaccination, the US government requires doctors to give parents aVaccine Information Statementeach time a child is vaccinated. Also, theNational Vaccine Injury Compensation Programhas been established to compensate people with proven vaccine-related injuries. This program was established because doctors and health authorities want as many children as possible to be protected from life-threatening diseases. When considering the risks and benefits of vaccination, parents must remember that for most children the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks. 