Vaccination Triggers, Rather than Causes, Seizures

Abstract

In Clinical Science Commentary Controversy has long surrounded whether vaccination causes seizures and encephalopathy in infants and children (1). The implications of causative claims have been profound with antivaccination lobby groups gaining ground in public debate by sowing seeds of concern in the minds of anxious parents. This fear of vaccination has fueled preventable outbreaks of disease such as measles in developed countries escalating from 40 cases in France in 2006 to >22,000 cases during 2008-2011 (2); such diseases are associated with significant long-term morbidity and even death. To add to this dilemma, claims of vaccine-related injury have resulted in large medicolegal payouts from vaccine manufacturers, further compromising vaccine access and uptake (1). Often, families facing a devastating disease firmly believe the vaccine is causative; nonetheless, large epidemiologic studies have refuted a causal link between vaccination and seizures (3). So-called "vaccine encephalopathy" was a relatively poorly defined entity in which previously well, developmentally Etiologies for Seizures Around the Time of Vaccination.

Clinical and genetic spectrum of SCN2A-associated episodic ataxia

“…Whether immunological processes such as vaccinations might trigger the onset and occurrence of paroxysmal events including epileptic seizures is still under debate. 17 In our cohort, several triggers of EA episodes were identified (Tables 1 and 2). These included sensory stimuli, e.g., a sudden noise and vibrations of the body.…”

Risk of Seizures after Immunization with Vaccine in Children

“…It is thought that the immune response activated by vaccination triggered a seizure without necessarily producing a high fever or even a fever at all. 37…”

“…The longterm rate of epilepsy was not increased in children who had FS following MMR vaccination compared with children who had FS of a different etiology. 37…”

Epilepsy in Children After Pandemic Influenza Vaccination

“…In some studies of epilepsy onset after vaccination, genetic or structural etiologies were found in most children with onset of epilepsy around the time of vaccination, supporting the view of vaccinations as possible precipitating factors of first seizures in susceptible children, rather than as primary, causal factors. 31,32 In several studies, authors conclude that pandemic vaccination may influence the risk of other neurologic conditions, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, encephalopathies, and narcolepsy, 6 -9 suggesting there is a potential influence on the brain when the immune system has been triggered by vaccination. 37,38 However, no association with narcolepsy was found in a study of a nonadjuvanted pandemic influenza vaccine used in the United States.…”