Question: There have been a lot of questions about the safety of flu vaccine and all vaccines, really. One friend told me her child's doctor told her to "run" from the flu vaccine. She took her child elsewhere to get vaccinated. What's the truth?
Answer: The federal government keeps a database of reports of injuries and adverse events related to vaccines. However, the data have limitations. Just because an event happened around the time someone was vaccinated does not mean the two are related. It could be coincidence. Also, anybody can report, and the validity of most reports are not verified. Serious reports, however, are followed up.
You can learn more about the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System database yourself online at http://vaers.hhs.gov/data/index. You can also search for types of adverse events reported. Navigate to the CDC Wonder interface at http://wonder.cdc.gov/vaers.html to search.
Reports do lead to changes. For instance, reports of girls fainting after getting the human papillomavirus vaccine (which protects against cervical cancer) led the Food and Drug Administration to require the makers of the Gardasil vaccine to update the warning label. The label now warns that fainting is a risk and advises health care providers have patients remain lying down or seated and closely observed for at least 15 minutes after getting vaccinated.
The federal database does include adverse-event reports about H1N1 as well as the seasonal flu vaccine.
According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention summary of the events, as of Nov. 13, 36.8 million doses of vaccine had been shipped. As of that same date, there had been 2,365 adverse-event reports made about H1N1 vaccine.
Of those 2,365 reports, 95 percent were less serious reactions such as soreness at the injection site.
More serious events may have required hospitalization. There were also six reports of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological disorder.
The H1N1 adverse-event reports included eight deaths, which are under review by the CDC. The deaths include an elderly man in Virginia.
Looking at the Virginia data, there have been 97 reports — four labeled serious. More than 1.4 million doses of H1N1 vaccine have been allocated to the state. Some of the less serious complaints include dizziness, heart palpitations and hives. More serious events include the one death and seizures.
The CDC is also tracking vaccine safety through its Vaccine Safety Datalink Project.
Tammie Smith is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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