Complications of DPT vaccination in preschool children

The worldwide application of vaccinations was very successful in eradication of a few diseases, but the other side of this was the problem of complications observed by many doses of the vaccines. In Iran there has been any documented investigation on the complications caused by vaccines. In our present study, we have studied the complications of DPT vaccination in 450 preschool children. 2-7 days after vaccine injection the children were examined for eventual general and local complications and the parents were asked for their observation on their children. We found no serious complications although 82.4% of them showed general and 83% local complications. Fever was the most frequently seen complication (73%), dizziness, loss of appetite, sever and prolonged crying were the next frequently observer complications. The most frequently encountered local complications consisted of pain at injection site (63%) as well as swelling, erythema and induration. With increasing age, swelling and local erythema was seen more frequently (P<0.001) and induration less frequently (P<0.001). General complications, too, decreased with increasing age and time of vaccination remarkably, this was specially remarkable in the age group 2-7 years (5th injection).