International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | July 2016 | Vol 3 | Issue 7 Page 1972 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Gore RS et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2016 Jul;3(7):1972-1974 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Case Report A rare side effect to pentavalent vaccine Rajeshwari S. Gore 1 *, Yashika R. Garg 1 , Sourabh Jain 2 , Arun Dahiya 1 INTRODUCTION Immunization against vaccine-preventable diseases is one of the safest and cost effective intervention to prevent many serious and life-threatening diseases, however it can cause minor and rarely serious adverse effects. 1 Public awareness about vaccine safety has increased primarily, because increase in vaccine coverage resulted in an increased number of adverse events which include both true reactions and events coincidental to, but not caused by vaccine. Despite concerns, vaccination is safer than accepting the risk of diseases which these vaccines prevent. Unless a disease has been eradicated (e.g., smallpox), failure to vaccinate increases the risk to both the individual and society. 2 CASE REPORT A four month old baby boy presented to the Dermatology outpatient department of our hospital with itchy reddish raised maculopapular lesions within 24 hrs following immunization with booster dose of pentavalent vaccine containing diphtheria toxoid, tetanus toxoid, bordetella pertussis (whole cell), HBsAg (hepatitis b antigen) (rDNA) and purified capsular Hib polysaccharide (PRP) in the Paediatrics Department. The maculopapular lesions appeared first on the lower abdomen (Figure 1) progressing all over the body including the lower limbs (Figure 2), hands, face (Figure 3) and back (Figure 4). There was no associated fever, cough, vomiting, sore throat, nasal discharge, bowels upset or insect bite. There was no history of allergy to woollen clothes. The child was exclusively breast fed. Both the mother and child had not taken any medications during this period. There was no change in the routine activity of the child. There was no history of similar illness in the past. Antenatal and perinatal history was uneventful and baby was otherwise healthy. There was no family history of similar adverse reaction to vaccination in his elder siblings. There was no history of reaction to the previous two doses of the same vaccine given to the child. This presentation was diagnosed as acute urticaria possibly due to the vaccine and treatment was advised with syrup prednisolone, hydroxyzine oral suspension and calamine lotion. On taking the prescribed treatment, the urticaria subsided in two to three days and there was no recurrence at the time of follow up. ABSTRACT A four month old baby experienced itchy reddish raised maculopapular lesions on face, limbs and trunk within 24 hours of immunization with booster dose of pentavalent vaccine. The lesions were not associated with fever, cough, vomiting, or insect bite. There was no similar family history with siblings .There was no history of similar reactions to the previous two doses of the same vaccine. On taking the prescribed medications the lesions subsided in 2-3 days with no recurrence at the time of follow-up. Keywords: Pentavalent, Immunization, Maculopapular 1 Department of Pharmacology, Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College, New Delhi, India 2 Department of Dermatology, Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College, New Delhi, India Received: 31 May 2016 Accepted: 18 June 2016 *Correspondence: Dr. Rajeshwari S. Gore, E-mail: drrajeshwarigore@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20162075