What is an Adverse Reaction?
An adverse reaction, also known as an adverse event following immunization, is any reaction that occurs after receiving an immunization and is believed to be due to the immunization.
What are the common symptoms of adverse reactions to immunizations?
Most symptoms are mild such as redness, swelling, itching or pain where the injection was given. Some people may get a fever, feel drowsy or nauseous. Life-threatening or severe reactions are rare, occurring in 1 in 10,000 to 1 million doses given.
How long do reactions appear after immunization?
Most reactions occur within minutes to a few days of receiving the vaccine. Live vaccines, such as MMR and chickenpox may have reactions 1-4 weeks following immunization.
How are Adverse Events Following Immunization reported?
Health care providers who observe adverse events or reactions following immunization report them to Toronto Public Health. Toronto Public Health sends these reports to the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. The information is then sent to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) where it is stored in the Canadian Adverse Events Following Immunization (CAEFI) database. Identifying information such as name and address are not included.
How are Adverse Events Following Immunization monitored?
The Canadian Adverse Events Following Immunization Surveillance System (CAEFISS) monitors adverse events following immunization from across the country. The surveillance system seeks to ensure the continued safety of vaccines on the Canadian market.
How do I know vaccines are safe?
Vaccines, like all medicines, must go through a series of steps before they are approved for use. Health authorities in Canada take vaccine safety very seriously. Before any vaccine is approved for use in Canada, it must be shown to be safe and effective in preventing the disease that it targets through multiple clinical studies.
Although some vaccines have adverse events, they are typically mild, and the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the rare risks of serious adverse events. Unsafe vaccines do not get licensed. If there were no vaccines, there would be many more cases of infectious diseases, more complications from these diseases and more deaths from vaccine preventable diseases.
Is vaccination safer when a child is older rather than at 2 months of age?
There is no evidence that side effects from vaccination are more common in younger infants. An infant’s immune system is very strong. Every day from birth an infant’s body naturally defends itself against thousands of germs you cannot see. Germs are in food, in the air, in water, and on objects. Getting numerous shots at one time uses only a very small part of an infant’s immune system for a short while, so it can guard against all the other germs too. Getting more than one
shot at a time does not wear out the immune system. A vaccine has a small amount of “germs” that have been killed, weakened or made inactive, and cannot harm your child. These allow your child's immune system to build protection against the disease.
Why do children need to be vaccinated so early in life?
Children are immunized in the first few months of life because certain diseases can be very severe when they infect a child who is very young. For example, complications and deaths from whooping cough (pertussis) are most common in infants less than 6 months of age.
What if I think my child is having a reaction to a vaccine?
If your child appears really sick and you are concerned that he/she is having a reaction to a vaccine, call you child’s health care provider immediately.
After an immunization, your child may cry and be fussy because of pain where the vaccine was given. A few children also develop fever, but a high fever (greater than 40°C or 104°F) is unusual with any of the current vaccines. For mild reactions such as pain, fussiness and low fever, you can give your child acetaminophen (e.g. Tylenol, Tempra) or ibuprofen (e.g. Advil, Motrin), which helps to reduce pain and fever.
Call your child’s health care provider if crying, fussiness, or increasing redness or tenderness lasts more than 24 hours.
Where can I get more information about vaccine safety and monitoring?
Where can I find more information?
For further information, ask your doctor or call Toronto Public Health Immunization Information Line at 416-392-1250.
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