>> Hi, I'm Dr. Claudia Vellozzi
with the CDC Immunization Safety Office.
Today I'll provide answers
to common questions people have regarding the safety
of influenza or flu vaccines.
I will begin with the question are flu vaccines safe?
Over the years hundreds of millions of people
in the United States have safely received seasonal flu vaccines.
Every year the CDC works closely with the Food
and Drug Administration, or the FDA,
to ensure the highest safety standards for flu vaccines.
For flu vaccines to be approved for use in the United States,
manufacturers must meet strict standards
to make sure they are free of contaminants
and the potency is appropriate.
Once the flu vaccines are appropriate for use,
CDC and FDA ensure systems are in place to detect
and investigate possible health problems following vaccination.
The next question is who should get the flu vaccines?
Flu vaccines are recommended each year for everyone
who is six months of age and older.
People with severe and life threatening egg allergies should
consult a medical professional before being vaccinated.
Next, what side effects can occur from a flu vaccination?
The most common reaction to the injected flu shot is soreness
around the injection site.
Other mild problems may include redness or swelling
where the shot was given,
and occasionally fever and body aches.
If these problems occur, they usually begin soon
after receiving the shot, may last for one to two days,
and resolve on their own.
Common side effects from the nasal spray flu vaccine include
runny nose, headache, and sore throat.
Life threatening allergic reactions
to flu vaccines are very rare.
If they do occur it is within a few minutes to a few hours
after vaccination, and effective treatments are available.
Signs of a serious reaction
to vaccination can include difficulty breathing,
hoarseness, wheezing , paleness, weakness,
a fast heartbeat, or dizziness.
Syncope, or fainting following vaccination can also occur.
Vaccine providers should strongly consider observing
patients for 15 minutes after they are vaccinated.
If syncope develops, patients should be observed till the
symptoms resolve.
Another common question is,
is the flu vaccine safe if I'm pregnant?
Well, the answer is yes.
Flu shots are safe for pregnant women and their unborn babies.
Millions of pregnant women have received the flu shot
over many years.
Getting the flu shot protects both pregnant women
and their unborn babies from birth up to six months of age
from flu and related complications.
The nasal spray vaccine is not recommended for pregnant women.
The flu shot can be given at any time during pregnancy,
and it is safe for women who are breastfeeding or plan
to breast feed their child.
Breastfeeding mothers that have been vaccinated can pass the
protective antibodies through the breast milk to the infant.
Which can then reduce the infant's chance
of getting sick with the flu.
This is especially important for infants less than six months old
who have no other way to receive protective antibodies
since they are too young to be vaccinated.
The next two questions deal with the safety
of the vaccine ingredient thimerosal.
The first question is what is thimerosal
and why is it used in some flu vaccines.
Thimerosal is a very effective ethylmercury-containing
preservative that has been used for more than 70 years
to prevent contamination such as the growth of bacteria or fungi
in some types of vaccines
where multiple doses are drawn from a single vial.
Thimerosal is, in fact,
an important ingredient contributing to the safety
of multi-dose vials of vaccines.
Flu vaccines that are packaged
in multi-dose vials do contain thimerosal as a preservative.
Other types of flu vaccines that come packaged
in individual syringes
or as individual units do not contain thimerosal.
Additionally, the nasal spray
and high dose injectable flu vaccines do not
contain thimerosal.
So the next question is should I be concerned about flu vaccines
that contain thimerosal?
There is a large amount of scientific evidence
on the safety of thimerosal in vaccines.
Data from several studies show the low doses of thimerosal
in vaccines do not cause harm and are only associated
with minor reactions, like redness and swelling
at the injection site.
Furthermore, many well-conducted scientific studies have shown no
association between thimerosal and vaccines and autism
or neurologic problems in children.
We do recognize that parents may still be worried
about thimerosal in flu vaccines,
and there are thimerosal-free flu vaccines available
as an option.
Both for the inject able
and nasal spray types of flu vaccine.
Another concern about the safety
of flu vaccines involves Guillain-Barre' syndrome, or GBS.
A common question is does the flu vaccine cause GBS.
GBS is a relatively rare neurological disorder
that causes muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis.
In the United States an estimated 3,000
to 6,000 people develop GBS each year on average.
Or about 80 to 160 cases each week whether
or not they have received the vaccination.
Anyone can develop GBS.
However, it is more common in older adults,
especially those ages 50 and older.
Many health conditions have been associated with GBS.
About two-thirds of people who develop GBS symptoms do
so several days or weeks after they have been sick
with diarrhea or a respiratory illness.
Infection with a bacterium campylobacter jejuni ,
a common cause of food poisoning,
is one of the most common risk factors for GBS.
People can also develop GBS after having the flu
or other infections, such as cytomegalovirus
or Epstein-Barr virus.
And sometimes GBS develops following surgery.
On very rare occasions, people may develop GBS in the days
or weeks after getting a flu vaccination.
There is some data that suggest flu vaccination may result
in a small increased risk for developing GBS.
This increased risk is on the order of one
to two additional cases of GBS per million persons vaccinated.
This risk needs to be placed in the context
of the known benefits of flu vaccination
in preventing flu illness.
Finally, you may ask do flu vaccines cause febrile seizures
in children.
Febrile seizures can be frightening
for a child's caregiver and parents, but nearly all children
who have a febrile seizure recover quickly
and are healthy afterwards.
Febrile seizures can happen with any condition
that causes a fever, including common childhood illnesses
like the cold, flu, ear infection, or roseola.
Since vaccinations may be associated with fever,
febrile seizures can also happen following vaccination,
although rarely.
In general, most febrile seizures occur in children
between the ages of 6 months and 5 years,
and this age group is recommended
to receive flu vaccine annually.
CDC studied the healthcare visit records of more
than 200,000 children 6 months through 4 years of age
who received flu vaccine.
The analysis found that febrile seizures following the flu shot
in this age group did occur but were rare.
The febrile seizures were most common in children ages 12
to 23 months when the influenza shot and another vaccine,
the 13 valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine or PCB 13,
were given together during the same healthcare visit.
In this group about one additional febrile seizure
occurred in every 2 to 3,000 children vaccinated.
After thoroughly evaluating this information and assessing this
in the context of the benefits of both flu vaccination
and PCB 13 vaccination CDC determined that no changes
in the childhood immunization schedule were necessary.
In summary, CDC places a high priority
on vaccine safety surveillance and research.
CDC and FDA continuously monitor the safety
of vaccines recommended for children
and adults in the United States.
Flu vaccines have been used for decades
and have an excellent safety record.
This concludes the CDC video on answers to common questions
about flu vaccine safety.
Thank you for watching.
For more information on flu vaccine safety,
please visit the CDC flu vaccine safety page provided here,
and for more information related to flu
and the flu vaccine please visit the CDC flu web page
at www.cdc.gov/flu.