Children have adverse Fluvax effects despite warnings for under-5s

ONE child has suffered a febrile convulsion and two more have reportedly experienced vomiting and diarrhoea after receiving Fluvax despite repeated warnings the vaccine is not registered for children under five years.

Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Baggoley will fax out yet another alert to providers today following the three reports of adverse events in children aged under five, a spokesperson for the department of health and ageing said.

The TGA has confirmed the case of the febrile convulsion and is continuing to investigate the other two cases.

“There have been a number of advisories already. We issued one last week,” the spokesperson said.

The number of children under five who may have received Fluvax is unknown.

However WA Health has confirmed that seven children aged under five in that state had indeed received the vaccine (25 cases were recorded in the immunisation register but 18 were found to be data entry errors).

“We followed up with all of them and found that one child had diarrhoea for 24 hours, but a causal link to the vaccine could not be established,” a spokeswoman for WA Health stated.

Health alerts from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation recommend using Fluarix and Vaxigrip for children between 6 months and 10 years – both of which are available for at risk children under the National Immunisation Program. Alternatively, Influvac and Agrippal are available on the private market.

All influenza vaccines including Fluvax are considered safe for anyone 10 or older.

Fluvax manufacturer CSL could not be reached for comment.