Flu vaccine needs safety monitoring: study

The flu vaccination is safe for children but regular monitoring of its safety and effectiveness is needed, according to research.

A study of about 900 children aged six months to 10 years found 5.5 per cent reported fever after dose 1 of the vaccination and 6.5 per cent reported fever after dose 2.

Injection site reactions occurred in 21.2 per cent after dose 1 and 6 per cent after dose 2, the research found.

Only 2.6 per cent sought a medical follow-up after dose 1 and 5.5 per cent after dose 2, according to commentary published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

The study authors said the results can reassure parents and health care providers that influenza vaccination is safe and well-tolerated.

But Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference laboratory epidemiology unit head Heath Kelly said safety had always been assumed from the absence of previously reported adverse events.

Things changed in 2010, Prof Kelly said, when vaccines manufactured by bioCSL were shown to cause fever at five to 10 times the previously accepted risk levels.

"The assumption that past safety predicts present safety might not be valid," Prof Kelly said.

"Timely safety monitoring should become a funded routine component of the influenza vaccine program in Australia.

"Regular effectiveness monitoring should also become routine."