Vaccine-Associated Aluminum Linked to Persistent Asthma in Young Children

FRIDAY, Sept. 30, 2022 (HealthDay News) — There is an association between vaccine-associated aluminum and persistent asthma among children with and without eczema, according to a study published online Sept. 27 in Academic Pediatrics.

Matthew F. Daley, M.D., from Kaiser Permanente Colorado in Aurora, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study in the Vaccine Safety Datalink to examine the association between cumulative aluminum exposure from vaccines before age 24 months and persistent asthma at age 25 to 59 months. Data were included from 326,991 children, of whom 4.4 percent had eczema.

The researchers found that the mean vaccine-associated aluminum exposure was 4.07 and 3.98 mg for children with and without eczema, respectively. Overall, 6.0 and 2.1 percent of children with and without eczema, respectively, developed persistent asthma. Vaccine-associated aluminum was positively associated with persistent asthma among children with eczema (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.26 per 1-mg increase in aluminum) and among children without eczema (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.19 per 1-mg increase in aluminum).

“This U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded study has important limitations that the authors acknowledge, and CDC is not changing the current routine childhood vaccination recommendations based on this single study,” the agency said in a statement. “We recognize these results may sound concerning to some parents, but there continues to be overwhelming evidence of the benefits of vaccines.”