Vaccines Pose No Diabetes, Bowel Disease Risk

KEYWORDS:
• diabetes mellitus, type 1
• haemophilus influenzae type b
• haemophilus vaccines
• hepatitis b vaccines
• inflammatory bowel diseases
• vaccination

Toronto—Children vaccinated against hepatitis B virus or Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) are not at increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes, according to results of a large epidemiologic study of children enrolled in four health maintenance organizations (HMOs). The findings were reported at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Furthermore, the age at which the children were vaccinated was not linked to an increased risk of developing the disorder, said Frank DeStefano, MD, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who presented the work.

In a separate study of the same HMO populations, a team led by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, found no link between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and immunization with measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.