Measles Vaccination Does Not Precipitate Guillain-Barré Syndrome
Source: de Silveira CM, et al. Measles vaccination and GBS. Lancet 1997;349:14-16.
Naïve case reports have sometimes described cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) following measles/mumps/rubella vaccination. Unfortunately, the effect of such useless papers sometimes persuades parents to refuse vaccination for their young children. In order to test this apprehension, the authors, all connected to the Pan American Health Organization, analyzed 4347 cases of acute flaccid paralysis occurring during 1990-1994 in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia. During that time, 2296 cases were identified as GBS, the remainder largely as poliomyelitis.
The overall average annual GBS rate for children 1-14 years was 0.61/100,000. During 1992 or 1993, each country held a one-month vaccination campaign and compared the GBS incidence during the 42-day post-vaccination period against the average monthly incidence of GBS during the total five years. By Poisson distribution, 92 cases would have been expected during the post-vaccination period, whereas 97 actually occurred, giving an incident rate of 0.67/100,000 vs. an expected rate of 0.63/100,000 (not significantly different). The data rule out an association between measles vaccination and GBS. Since neurologic complications of actual measles plus rubella and/or mumps in a naïve, non-vaccinated environment have an incidence rate of more than 200/100,000, often with permanent sequelae, the case for early, safe vaccination seems imperative. fp
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