Dive Brief:
- Researchers have completed analysis of whether the flu virus from the winter of 2010-11 caused febrile seizures.
- After a spate of reports of febrile seizures in children, experts suspected a link between Fluzone and febrile seizures
- Using data from more than 800,000 vaccinated children, researchers concluded that there is not a significant correlation between Fluzone vaccination and febrile seizures.
Dive Insight:
The 2010-11 flu season was challenging, and pediatricians worked hard to vaccinate their patients based on guidelines. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends annual vaccinations for everyone older than 6 months. However, during the 2010-11 flu season, the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) signaled a potential association between Fluzone (trivalent inactiviated influenza vaccine) and febrile seizures, based on 68 reported cases.
Subsequent analysis allowed researchers to examine the data more closely, looking at the records of 842,235 children who received Fluzone during that period. Based on retrospective analysis, researchers stated that there is no significant association between Fluzone vaccination and febrile seizures in children.