Singapore: US-based Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center is closer to launching a measles vaccine with no sideeffect after it recieved positive result from a 12-year analytical study of two measle vaccine candidates.

Measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (or MMRV) and measles-mumps-rubella and varicella (or MMR + V) vaccines were administered to children aged 12 to 23 months, from January 2000 through June 2012 and a total of 123,200 MMRV doses and 584,987 MMR + V doses were evaluated.

Comparing MMRV with MMR + V found no increased risk of seven main neurological, blood or immune system disorders (immune thrombocytopenia purpura, anaphylaxis, ataxia, arthritis, meningitis/encephalitis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis and Kawasaki disease). No new safety concerns were identified after either vaccine, and most outcomes studied were unlikely after either vaccine.

"This study did not identify any new safety concerns comparing MMRV with MMR + V or after either the MMRV or the MMR + V vaccine," said Dr Nicola P Klein, lead author and co-director of the Vaccine Study Center. "In fact, there were few or zero events for several outcomes following vaccination. These findings indicate that even if an increased risk for these outcomes exists, the risk is low and rare. This should reassure parents that these outcomes are unlikely after either vaccine."

"This level of safety monitoring for vaccines can give the public confidence that vaccine surveillance is ongoing and that if a safety problem existed, it would be detected," said Dr Klein. "Our findings offer reassurance that adverse outcomes of measles-containing vaccines are extremely rare and unlikely, and that parents of 1-year-old children can choose MMR + V instead of MMRV vaccines to reduce the low risk of fever and febrile seizures."