Combination Vaccine Doubles Risk Of Seizures

Confirming the results of prior studies, research conducted by the University of Calgary and published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal has found that the combination MMR-chickenpox vaccine doubles the risk of febrile seizures in young children.

The researchers reviewed side effect data from 277,774 children who had received either the combined MMRV (measles-mumps-rubella-varicella) vaccine or two separate vaccines (MMR and varicella/chickenpox) between the ages of 12 and 23 months.

The researchers found that, among children who received the vaccines separately, less than 0.2 per 1,000 experienced febrile seizure -- fever-induced convulsions that infants and young children are particularly susceptible to. Among children who had received the MMRV vaccine, however, the febrile seizure rate went up to 0.352 per 1,000...