Dosage guidelines for epinephrine have been modified to better suit pre-adolescents. This statement is intended to be a guide for initial management of patients in a public health clinic or similar non-hospital setting. In a patient with severe, life-threatening anaphylaxis, establishment of intravenous access for drug and fluid administration will be necessary and endotracheal intubation and other maneuvers may be required. These interventions are ordinarily best performed in a hospital s emergency room. Anaphylaxis is a rare and potentially life-threatening allergic complication of immunization that should be anticipated in every vaccinee.
Prevention is the best approach.
As avoidance is not always possible, every vaccine provider should be familiar with the symptoms of anaphylaxis and be ready to administer appropriate medications. Vaccine recipients should be kept under supervision for at least 15 minutes post-immunization. Anaphylaxis is one of the rarer events reported in the post-marketing surveillance system for vaccine adverse events. Based on the last 5 years of complete national data, the annual rate of anaphylaxis ranges from 0.11 to 0.31 reports per 100,000 doses of vaccines distributed. Fainting is simply managed by placing the patient in a recumbent position.