MMR Vaccination and Febrile Seizures

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Abstract
The safety of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is of major public health interest because millions of children are vaccinated every year. Fortunately, the vaccine is generally well-tolerated, rarely associated with serious adverse effects, and may even have nonspecific health benefits.1-5 However, MMR vaccination is followed by a transient increased risk of febrile seizures compared with nonvaccinated children, probably due to vaccine-induced fever.6-10 It may have clinical implications if susceptible children could be identified before the vaccination but no study has been large enough to identify such subgroups. For example, it is unknown whether children with a personal or a family history of seizures are more prone to MMR-induced febrile seizures than children without such history. Febrile seizures are in general associated with an increased risk of epilepsy11-13 but it remains unclear if febrile seizures following MMR vaccination carry a particularly high risk. To address these questions, we performed a large population-based cohort study.