Abstract
Certain ingredients that are present in some vaccines (other than disease-specific antigens), such as gelatin or neomycin, can very rarely cause severe hypersensitivity reactions (e.g. anaphylaxis) in vaccinees with those specific allergies. In addition, some adjuvants can cause increased rates of local reactions, and alum containing adjuvants can cause nodules at the injection site. Vaccine ingredients, including the preservative thimerosal, do not cause autism. Ingredients in vaccines currently routinely recommended to the general population in the U.S. have not been shown to cause any other adverse events.
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These conclusions do not necessarily consider vaccines recommended only for special populations in the United States such as Yellow Fever vaccine (international travelers) or Smallpox vaccine (military personnel).
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Dudley, M.Z. et al. (2018). Do Vaccine Ingredients Cause Adverse Events?. In: The Clinician’s Vaccine Safety Resource Guide. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94694-8_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94694-8_21
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