PROPHYLACTIC USE OF PARACETAMOL ON ROUTINE VACCINATION INDUCED FEVER AND FEBRILE CONVULSION

Asok Chakrabarti; Jayanta Kumar Poddar; Jayanta Debnath; Sujit Bhattacharjee

Volume : V, Issue : I, January - 2016

PROPHYLACTIC USE OF PARACETAMOL ON ROUTINE VACCINATION INDUCED FEVER AND FEBRILE CONVULSION

Asok Chakrabarti, Jayanta Kumar Poddar, Jayanta Debnath, Sujit Bhattacharjee

Abstract :

Vaccination is one of the great accomplishments in the field of public health. Routine vaccination is extremely beneficial for children. But the reasons for noncompliance are the adverse effect of the previous immunization. A total of 1348 children belonging to the age group 0-6 years were studied for a period of six months for assessing the efficacy of paracetamol prophylaxis for fever and convulsion in routine immunization practice. Prophylaxis was done in half of the children. The children�s were observed by parents for a period of 48hours after immunization. Paracetamol in the dose of 15mg/kg/dose was given in half of the children for 48hours, 6-8 hourly starting 0-30 minutes before the immunization. There was about 50% reduction in the occurrence of fever and with no convulsion in the prophylactic group. The use of prophylactic paracetamol may be reconsidered for reduction in post vaccination adverse effect of which fever and convulsion are major sequelae. This strategy may reduce the noncompliant parents and the immunization drop out cases.