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Does recent vaccination increase the risk of occult bacteremia?
1Department of Emergency Medicine, State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Insights
Recent childhood vaccination, including diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccines, does not increase the risk of occult bacteremia. This study found no link between recent immunizations and invasive bacterial infections in children.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric infectious disease
- Vaccinology
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Concerns exist regarding potential links between childhood vaccinations and increased risk of invasive bacterial disease.
- Occult bacteremia is a frequent precursor to invasive bacterial disease in young children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between recent vaccination and the risk of occult bacteremia in children presenting to the emergency department.
Main Methods:
- A case-control study was conducted using children from an emergency department setting.
- Case patients with suspected occult bacteremia were compared with two age-matched control groups: febrile nonbacteremic children and nonfebrile children with noninfectious complaints.
- Time intervals from the most recent vaccination to emergency department presentation were analyzed.
Main Results:
- No significant difference was observed in the time since the last vaccination among case patients and control groups.
- This lack of difference was consistent for all vaccine antigens, including diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis.
Conclusions:
- Recent vaccination, including pertussis-containing vaccines, is not associated with an increased risk of occult bacteremia in children.
- Findings suggest that vaccination does not heighten susceptibility to invasive bacterial infections in the postvaccination period.
Abstract:
Several studies have questioned whether vaccination, especially against pertussis, increases the risk of invasive bacterial disease in young children in the immediate postvaccination period. In most cases, the antecedent of invasive bacterial disease is occult bacteremia. Therefore, we conducted a case-control study of children seen in an emergency department to determine whether there was an increased risk of occult bacteremia associated with recent vaccination. The case patients were obtained from an ongoing multicenter study of antibiotics for the management of suspected occult bacteremia; two age-matched controls were chosen for each case patient, consisting of one series of febrile nonbacteremic children and a second series of nonfebrile children with noninfectious complaints. The intervals from most recent vaccination to emergency department presentation were compared among case and control patients using the two-tailed t test. There was no significant difference in the time since last vaccination with any antigen, or with diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis in particular, among the case patients and patients in either control series. Recent vaccination was not associated with increased susceptibility to occult bacteremia among these children.
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