Scientific Publications by FDA Staff

Vaccine 2007 Feb 26;25(10):1727-34

Neurologic disease associated with 17D-204 yellow fever vaccination: A report of 15 cases.

McMahon AW, Eidex RB, Marfin AA, Russell M, Sejvar JJ, Markoff L, Hayes EB, Chen RT, Ball R, Braun MM, Cetron M; the Yellow Fever Working Group

Yellow fever (YF), can be prevented by an attenuated vaccine (YEL). We reviewed neurologic adverse events (AE) following YEL that were reported to the national Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). VAERS is a passive reporting system with inherent limitations for causality assessment. Based on defined criteria, five cases of encephalitis were classified as 'definitely' and one of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) as 'probably' caused by YEL. Six cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), one of encephalitis, and two of ADEM, were classified as 'suspect' vaccine-associated disease. Laboratory and epidemiological evidence suggests that YEL caused encephalitis. Additional studies will be required to confirm whether YEL can rarely result in GBS and/or ADEM.