The Relationship Between Pertussis Vaccine and Brain Damage: Reassessment

Introduction

Administration of pertussis vaccine has been temporally associated with local and systemic reactions, including febrile convulsions. Based on the National Childhood Encephalopathy Study (NCES), a large case-controlled, epidemiological study in Great Britain, permanent neurological disability (brain damage) has not been considered a common sequela of those rare, severe, adverse neurological events temporally related to pertussis immunization.