Safety of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) in patients allergic to eggs

A review of a paediatric emergency department vaccination programme for patients at risk of allergy/anaphylaxis

“…Measles, Mumps, Rubella accounted for the majority of vaccines (69.5%) that were administered by our service. Allergy to egg is the principal reason for referral despite established international guidelines and a significant body of evidence pointing to the safety of MMR vaccine for this population (5–7,9–21). Children were, however, referred for a variety of different reasons such as other allergies, nonspecific reactions to previous vaccines and family history of a reaction to a vaccine.…”

Vaccines and allergic reactions: The past, the current COVID‐19 pandemic, and future perspectives

“…Influenza, yellow fever, and rabies vaccines tend to have higher concentrations of ovalbumin because they are cultured in embryonated chicken eggs 85 . Vaccines cultured in chicken embryo fibroblasts, such as the MMR vaccine, have lower concentrations of egg protein than those cultured in embryonic eggs 86 . While egg allergy is common in childhood, studies have shown that vaccinating egg‐allergic children with MMR and influenza vaccines is well tolerated and risk of an allergic reaction is similar in the general population 87,88 .…”

Vaccination in children with allergy to non active vaccine components

“…These allergic reactions rates did not differ significantly from those in non‐egg‐allergic controls [24‐26]. In investigations published in the last ten years [21,23‐37] the frequency of allergic reactions to vaccine was 2.62% in 6532 subjects (Table 1). The American Academy of Paediatrics [19] has recently stated that the risks of missing influenza vaccination outweigh those from vaccination itself.…”