|
British researchers have confirmed that the measles-mumps-rubella
(MMR) vaccine can cause a
rare bleeding disorder in children.
But they stress that children remain at much higher
disease risk from measles, mumps or rubella if they forego vaccination,
than they are from the vaccine-linked bleeding condition, called idiopathic
thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).
People with ITP bleed under the skin, causing a kind
of purple bruise to spread across the body. Other symptoms can include
tiny red spots on the skin and nosebleeds. The condition is mild in the
majority of cases.
The reaction,
caused by the destruction of the platelets that help blood clot, seems
to occur most often within the first 2 or 3 weeks of receipt of the vaccine
according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The vaccine
has been linked to the disease for years, although evidence
supporting the association has been limited.
The absolute risk of hospitalization for ITP within
six weeks of immunization was 1 in 22,300 doses.
ITP can occur in children following a viral infection.
Miller and colleagues note that the vaccine-related risk is quite low
when compared to ITP that occurs after catching measles, rubella or mumps.
For instance, one case of ITP occurs for about every 3000 rubella infections.
Archives of Disease in
Childhood March 2001; 84: 227-229
| 