Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, CDC, Vaccine Studies / 28.06.2020
Small Risk of Shoulder Bursitis After Flu Vaccine
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Elisabeth Hesse, MD
Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS Officer)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Over the last decade, there has been increasing attention given to shoulder injuries diagnosed after intramuscular vaccinations, with multiple publications of case reports and case series. However, to the best of our knowledge, there haven’t been any robust studies to determine how frequently this happens and what may make some people more likely than others to have shoulder injuries after vaccination. The Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) is an ideal system to use for such a study, because it contains medical and vaccination records of over 10 million people across the United States. We found that out of the 2.9 million people over the age of 3 who received an injectable flu vaccine (specifically, inactivated influenza vaccine) during the 2016-2017 flu season, fewer than 8 people per million vaccinated developed shoulder bursitis that can be attributed to the vaccination. (more…)