Measles, Mumps, and Rubella - Centers for Disease Control and ...

30 MMWR May 22, 1998appropriate treatment. Use of aspirin during some illnesses in childhood is associatedwith the occurrence of Reye syndrome. Therefore, aspirin generally should not beused to prevent or control fever among children and adolescents.The 5%–7% of children who have either a personal history of convulsions or a parentor sibling with history of convulsions may be at increased risk for febrile convulsionsafter MMR vaccination (184 ). The precise risk has not been measured, butappears to be minimal. On the other hand, febrile seizures occur commonly amongchildren in whom measles disease develops, and the risk for acquiring measles is substantial.Therefore, the benefits of administering MMR vaccine to children with apersonal or family history of convulsions substantially outweigh the risks and thesechildren should be vaccinated following the recommendations for children who haveno contraindications.Children who are being treated with anticonvulsants should continue to take themafter measles vaccination. Because protective levels of most currently available anticonvulsantdrugs (e.g., phenobarbital) are not achieved for some time after therapy isinitiated, prophylactic use of these drugs is not feasible.The parents of children who have either a personal or family history of seizuresshould be advised of the benefits of vaccination and the minimal increased risk forseizures, which generally occur 5–14 days after measles vaccination.Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS)Cases of GBS occurring after administration of MMR or its component vaccineshave been reported, but the IOM judged the evidence insufficient to accept or reject acausal relationship (150 ). Recent studies provide evidence against this potential association(185,186 ). After recent mass vaccination campaigns that involved approximatelyeight million doses of measles-rubella vaccine in the United Kingdom and>70 million doses of measles vaccine in Latin America, evaluations of GBS incidencedemonstrated no increases over background rates.Arthralgia, Arthritis, and Persistent or Recurrent ArthropathyJoint symptoms are associated with the rubella component of MMR. Among susceptiblepersons who receive rubella vaccine, arthralgia and transient arthritis occurmore frequently among adults than among children and more frequently among postpubertalfemales than among males. Acute arthralgia or arthritis are rare amongchildren who receive RA 27/3 vaccine (187 ). By contrast, arthralgia develops amongapproximately 25% of susceptible postpubertal females after RA 27/3 vaccination andapproximately 10% have acute arthritis-like signs and symptoms (188,189 ). Althoughrare reports of transient peripheral neuritic complaints have occurred, insufficient evidenceexists to indicate a causal relation between RA 27/3 vaccine and peripheralneuropathies (149,190 ). When acute joint symptoms occur, or when pain and/orparesthesias not associated with joints occur, they generally begin 1–3 weeks aftervaccination, persist for 1 day to 3 weeks, and rarely recur. Adults who experiencedacute joint symptoms after rubella vaccination usually have not had to disrupt workactivities (189,190,191 ).A 1991 report by the IOM stated that although some data were consistent witha causal relation between RA27/3 rubella vaccine and chronic arthritis among adult