Vaccines safe, some side effects: Study

WASHINGTON - Vaccines can cause certain side effects with serious ones appearing very rarely, and there is no link with autism and Type 1 diabetes, the US Institute of Medicine said in the first comprehensive safety review in 17 years.

The report released on Thursday is not aimed at nervous parents. The side effects it lists as proven are some that doctors long have known about, such as fever-caused seizures and occasional brain inflammation.

Instead, the review comes at the request of the US government's Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which pays damages to people who are injured by vaccines. US law requires this type of independent review as officials update side effects on that list to be sure they agree with the latest science.

"Vaccines are important tools in preventing serious infectious disease across the lifespan from infancy through adulthood. All healthcare interventions, however, carry the possibility of risk and vaccines are no exception," said pediatrician and bioethicist Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton of Vanderbilt University, who chaired the institute panel.

Still, the report stresses that vaccines generally are safe and it may help doctors address worries from a small but vocal anti-vaccine movement.

"I am hopeful that it will allay some people's concerns," Clayton said.

The review echoed numerous other scientific reports that dismiss an autism link.

The report also cleared flu shots of blame for two suspected side effects: Bell's palsy and worsening of asthma.

That doesn't mean there aren't other side effects - the review couldn't find enough evidence to decide about more than 100 other possibilities.

The Health Resources and Services Administration, which runs the vaccine compensation program, is reviewing the report but said it is too early to predict if it will prompt changes to the injury list.

Associated Press