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Do Vaccines Cause Syncope?

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The Clinician’s Vaccine Safety Resource Guide

Abstract

Vaccines currently routinely recommended to the general population in the U.S. can rarely cause syncope up to an hour after vaccination, most frequently among adolescents, and especially among females 11-18 years of age. Potential injury from syncope after vaccination can be prevented by careful monitoring of vaccine recipients and having them sit or lay down if symptoms develop. The ACIP recommends that recipients always receive the vaccine while sitting and that providers observe adolescent and adult patients for 15 minutes after vaccination. To avoid a hysterical reaction among peers to a post-vaccination syncope case, it is also recommended that adolescents are vaccinated out of sight of others awaiting vaccination.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    These conclusions do not necessarily consider vaccines recommended only for special populations in the United States such as Yellow Fever vaccine (international travelers) or Smallpox vaccine (military personnel).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Epidemiologist, Institute for Vaccine Safety, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Matthew Z. Dudley PhD, MSPH

  2. Professor, Departments of International Health and Health, Behavior and Society, Director, Institute for Vaccine Safety, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Daniel A. Salmon PhD, MPH

  3. Professor Emeritus, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Professor Emeritus, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Director Emeritus, Institute for Vaccine Safety, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Neal A. Halsey MD

  4. Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, Global Health, and Epidemiology, Emory University, Associate Director, Emory Vaccine Center, Director, Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (Emory-UGA CEIRS), Former President, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), Atlanta, GA, USA

    Walter A. Orenstein MD, DSc (Hon)

  5. Associate Director for Behavioral Research, Institute for Vaccine Safety, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Rupali J. Limaye PhD, MPH, MA

  6. Associate Professor, Pediatrics-Infectious Diseases, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO, USA

    Sean T. O’Leary MD, MPH

  7. William H. Foege Professor of Global Health, Professor of Epidemiology and Pediatrics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Saad B. Omer MBBS, PhD, MPH

Authors
  1. Matthew Z. Dudley PhD, MSPH
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  2. Daniel A. Salmon PhD, MPH
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  3. Neal A. Halsey MD
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  4. Walter A. Orenstein MD, DSc (Hon)
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  5. Rupali J. Limaye PhD, MPH, MA
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  6. Sean T. O’Leary MD, MPH
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  7. Saad B. Omer MBBS, PhD, MPH
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Dudley, M.Z. et al. (2018). Do Vaccines Cause Syncope?. In: The Clinician’s Vaccine Safety Resource Guide. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94694-8_56

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94694-8_56

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94693-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94694-8

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