Health
Workup can help kids with vaccine allergies
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Sept. 22, 2008
With close monitoring and a few standard precautions, nearly all children with known or suspected vaccine allergies can be safety immunized, according to a team of vaccine safety experts at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore. Writing in the September Pediatrics, the researchers noted that serious allergic reactions are extremely rare, but when they do occur, they can be serious.
Among their recommendations is a workup conducted by an allergist that includes a skin prick test or an injection under the skin of a small dose of vaccine or the suspected allergen from the vaccine. The immunizations of children with known vaccine allergies should always be administered under medical supervision in a clinic equipped to treat life-threatening allergic reactions or in a hospital intensive-care unit, the researchers added.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/09/22/hlbf0922.htm.
