Prevalence of recent immunisation in children with febrile convulsions.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of recent immunisation amongst children under 7 years of age presenting for febrile convulsions.


METHODS
This is a retrospective study of all children under the age of seven presenting with febrile convulsions to a tertiary referral hospital in Sydney. A total of 78 cases occurred in the period January 2011 to July 2012 and were included in the study. Data was extracted from medical records to provide a retrospective review of the convulsions.


RESULTS
Of the 78 total cases, there were five medical records which contained information on whether or not immunisation had been administered in the preceding 48 h to presentation to the emergency department. Of these five patients only one patient (1.28% of the study population) was confirmed to have received a vaccination with Infanrix, Prevnar and Rotavirus. The majority of cases reported a current infection as a likely precipitant to the febrile convulsion.


CONCLUSIONS
This study found a very low prevalence of recent immunisation amongst children with febrile convulsions presenting to an emergency department at a tertiary referral hospital in Sydney. This finding, however, may have been distorted by underreporting of vaccination history.
Leya Motala, Guy D Eslick, Whiteley-Martin Research Centre, Discipline of Surgery, Nepean Hospital, the University of Sydney, Penrith NSW 2751, Australia.
Leya
L
Motala
Leya Motala, Guy D Eslick, Whiteley-Martin Research Centre, Discipline of Surgery, Nepean Hospital, the University of Sydney, Penrith NSW 2751, Australia.
Guy D
GD
Eslick
Adverse event; Febrile convulsion; Immunisation; Prevalence; Vaccination