Pfizer vaccine: Anaphylaxis ‘rare’ but more common than with flu vax
Anaphylaxis following administration of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine can be considered ‘rare’ although reported cases are nearly 10 times higher than for flu vaccine, US health authorities say.
The US CDC has analysed data on reported allergic reactions to the vaccine, which uses new messenger RNA technology, finding 21 cases of anaphylaxis among recipients of nearly 1.9 million doses.
The data, from cases submitted to the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System in the first 10 days of the December vaccine rollout under an emergency use authorisation, underlines the need for stringent prevaccination screening, the CDC says.
Some 175 possible cases of anaphylaxis or severe allergic reaction were identified. Of these, 21 were determined to be anaphylaxis, an incidence rate of 11.1 per million doses.
