Journal of North Khorasan

Background & Objectives: Immunization is one of the existing methods for infectious diseases prevention that its short-term goal is to curb human disease in individuals and its ultimate goal is eradicating the disease. As regards there is not accurate statistics about the incidence of vaccine side effects in Bojnurd, so data gathering about the incidence of vaccine side effects can be useful for planning health promotion. Material & Methods: In this prospective cohort study, 570 children were selected in Bojnurd by stratified random sampling method. Their demographic and knowledge data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire. The inclusion criteria of the study was subjects aged 2 to 18 months, and DPT and MMR vaccine and physical health. Data were analyzed by SPSS software and presented with descriptive and analytic statistic. Results: 50% of children who had received DTP vaccine and 20% of children who had received MMR vaccine, showed at least one side effect. The most Local side effect was Pain at the injection site (44%) and the most general side effect was mild to moderate fever (18%) . There were no cases with other side effects such as fever, lymphadenitis, tension, shock. One case with sterile abscess was only observed. Conclusion: To date serious side effects of MMR and DTP vaccines have been less reported. Side effects are usually mild and temporary and the major part of these adverse effects disappeared without medication, but rare and dangerous ones may occur. Therefore, a careful follow-up program and registration is recommended to report vaccination side effects.