June 19, 2015
Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
Clin Infect Dis. (2015)
doi: 10.1093/cid/civ423
First published online: May 28, 2015
TAKE-HOME MESSAGE
- Data were evaluated from the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System on deaths after any vaccination between 1997 and 2013. Of the 2149 deaths reported, 68.4% occurred in children. Common causes in children were reported as sudden infant death syndrome, asphyxia, septicemia, and pneumonia. Common causes of death in adults were diseases of the circulatory and respiratory systems, infections and parasitic diseases, and malignant neoplasms. A total of 79.4% of children who died after vaccination had received more than one vaccine on the same day. The inactivated influenza vaccine was most commonly given before death in adults.
- There was no pattern of concern noted in the data, and causes of death paralleled common causes of death among the US population.
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Vaccines are among the safest medical products in use today. Hundreds of millions of vaccinations are administered in the United States each year. Serious adverse reactions are uncommon. However, temporally associated deaths can occur following vaccination. To characterize main causes of death among reports submitted to the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a spontaneous vaccine safety surveillance system.
METHODS
We searched VAERS for US reports of death after any vaccination from 7/1/1997-12/31/2013. Available medical records, autopsy reports and death certificates were reviewed to identify cause of death.
RESULTS
VAERS received 2,149 death reports, most (N=1,469;68.4%) in children. Median age was 0.5 years (range 0-100 years); males accounted for 1,226 (57%) reports. The total annual number of death reports generally decreased during the latter part of the study period. Most common causes of death among 1,244 child reports with available death certificates/autopsy reports included: sudden infant death syndrome (N=544;44%), asphyxia (N=74;6.0%), septicemia (N=61;4.9%), and pneumonia (N=57;4.6%). Among 526 adult reports, most common causes of death included: diseases of the circulatory (N=247;46.9%) and respiratory systems (N=77;14.6%), certain infections and parasitic diseases (N=62;11.8%), and malignant neoplasms (N=20;3.8%). For child death reports, 79.4% received more than one vaccine on the same day. Inactivated influenza vaccine given alone was most commonly associated with death reports in adults (51.4%).
CONCLUSIONS
No concerning pattern was noted among death reports submitted to VAERS during 1997-2013. The main causes of death were consistent with the most common causes of death in the US population.