Abstract        

Introduction: Pentavalent vaccine is used routinely in Iran immunization schedule. Hence this study was performed to determine the prevalence rate of side effects due to pentavalent vaccine.

Methods: In this observational study that was performed as a cross-sectional descriptive survey, 676 consecutive children attending to health-care centers supervised by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (including Khajeh-Nezam, Imam-Hassan, Kadoos, Absard, and Hazrat-e-Mohammad) who received Pentavalent vaccine were enrolled and the prevalence rate and type of early side effects of Pentavalent vaccine among them was determined.

Results: The results demonstrated that side effects were present in more than 70% of children. The most common side effects were fever (71.2%), pain (52.5%), restlessness (17.8%), and induration (12.3%). The gender and background disease were not related to adverse effects (P > 0.05); but the lower educational level in mother and higher educational level in father were significantly related to fever and pain, respectively (P=0.001).

Conclusion: Totally, according to the obtained results in this study, it may be concluded that nearly seven out of ten children who receive the pentavalent vaccine injection would experience some side effects.

Keywords: Side Effects, Pentavalent Vaccine, Prevalence