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Section 1. Active and Passive Immunization
ACTIVE IMMUNIZATION
Vaccine Safety and Contraindications
Risks and Adverse Events
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All licensed vaccines in the United States are safe and effective, but no vaccine is completely safe and effective in every person. Some vaccine recipients will have an adverse reaction, and some will not always be protected fully. The goal of vaccine development is to achieve the highest degree of protection with the lowest rate of adverse events. Adverse events after immunization include both true vaccine reactions and coincidental events blamed on the vaccine. As immunizations successfully eliminate their target vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine safety issues have increased in relative prominence, increasing the need for immunization providers to communicate the risks and benefits of immunizations to a population whose first-hand experience with vaccine-preventable diseases is increasingly rare.
Risks of immunization may vary from trivial and inconvenient to severe and life threatening. When developing immunization recommendations, vaccine benefits and risks are weighed against the risks of natural disease to the person and the community. Many families lack awareness of the
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