Measles Vaccine Linked to Rare Febrile Seizures in Young Kids

Source: The Journal of pediatrics

Summary

Researchers studied the risk of febrile seizures in young children after receiving the measles vaccine. They looked at data from 53,830 children aged 6 to 59 months who were part of a health system over a 15-year period, from 2008 to 2024. The focus was on whether the vaccine was linked to seizures that happen when a child has a fever.

The study found that there were 10 cases of febrile seizures occurring 7 to 14 days after the measles vaccine. This means that the rate of these seizures was very low, at about 2 out of every 100,000 children vaccinated. Importantly, all the children who had seizures were also dealing with other illnesses and had received additional vaccines at the same time. None of the children developed epilepsy as a result.

This research is important because it helps parents understand that while febrile seizures can happen after vaccination, they are rare and usually occur in children who are already sick. However, the study has some limits, such as the small number of seizures observed and the fact that all children had other health issues. This means more research is needed to fully understand the relationship between the measles vaccine and febrile seizures.

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