Book dossier

Adverse Events Associated With Childhood Vaccines

by Kathleen R. Stratton

Childhood immunization is one of the major public health achievements of the 20th century and is receiving special attention from the Clinton Administration. At the same time, some parents and health professionals are questioning the safety of vaccines because of the occurrence of rare adverse events after immunization. This volume provides the most thorough literature review available about links between common childhood vaccines - tetanus, diphtheria, measles, mumps, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and hepatitis B - and specific types of disorders or death. The panel presents its findings in helpful tables as well as in narrative form, discusses approaches to evidence and causality, and examines the possible adverse effects - neurologic and immunologic disorders and death - of immunization. Helpful background information on the development of the vaccines and details about the case reports, clinical trials, and other evidence associating each vaccine with specific disorders are included.