©2020 The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Over time, small amounts of the aluminium from food, drink and other sources do accumulate in the body, but this is not believed to pose a significant risk to health (see for example this UK research from 2004 ). A few vaccines in the UK schedule are made using recombinant DNA technology. Thiomersal was removed from UK vaccines between 2003 and 2005, and is no longer found in any of the childhood or adult vaccines routinely used in the UK. Gelatine in vaccines is highly purified and hydrolysed (broken down by water), so it is different from the natural gelatine used in foods. This is several thousand times more than the quantity of the active ingredient you would find in most vaccines. This is a risk for people who have a severe allergy to latex (one that causes an anaphylactic reaction), and they should talk to a doctor before receiving a vaccine. Glutaraldehyde is a similar kind of organic compound which is also used to inactivate toxins from bacteria used in vaccines. Some sources state that bovine products may be present in the media that are used to grow the viruses or bacteria that are used to make the components of some vaccines. Printable aluminum in vaccines question and answer sheet:English [PDF, 296KB]Spanish [PDF, 333KB]Japanese [PDF, 948KB], 3401 Civic Center Blvd. That’s not to say it’s going to be particularly bad: Clues from the Southern Hemisphere, where the flu season is well underway, actually hint that it will be a mild year for influenza across the globe.But it … Antibiotics are used in the manufacture of the following vaccines used in the UK: Egg allergy is quite common in children under 5, and much more common in children than in adults. Traces of five antibiotics may be found in some of the vaccines used in the UK. There is also detailed information about the safety of thiomersal on the US Food and Drug Administration's pages . Gelatine derived from pigs is used in some live vaccines as a stabiliser to protect live viruses against the effects of temperature. Hundreds of thousands of individual vaccines could be made from a single teaspoon of active ingredient. The viruses used to make Fluenz are custom-made by putting together individual genes that will give the right features. If you look up some vaccine ingredients on the internet you may read that they could be harmful, but most of them are present in vaccines in amounts that are completely normal for our bodies. It may also lead to an increase in common side effects such as pain, swelling or redness at the injection site, slightly high temperature, headache, feeling generally unwell, shivering, or tiredness. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has advised that most children with an egg allergy can be safely vaccinated with the nasal flu vaccine (Fluenz Tetra). Only one vaccine used in the UK contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs). You should not consider the information in this site to be specific, professional medical advice for your personal health or for your family's personal health. Added ingredients are present in very small quantities (usually a few milligrams). ‘Bovine products’ refers to any product that is derived from a cow or calf (such as bovine serum, which comes from cow's blood). The amount of natural formaldehyde in a 2-month-old infant’s blood (around 1.1 milligrams in total) is ten times greater than the amount found in any vaccine (less than 0.1 milligrams). It has been suggested that some diseases involving the brain, such as Alzheimer's disease, are caused by aluminum accumulation in brain tissues. A study from 2002 drew similar conclusions. Aluminum is found in numerous foods and beverages including fruits and vegetables, beer and wine, seasonings, flour, cereals, nuts, dairy products, baby formulas, and honey. Other products used in very small quantities as stabilisers in vaccines include: Polysorbate 80 is a common food additive used in several vaccines as an emulsifier (to hold other ingredients together). Jefferson T, Rudin M, Di Pietrantonj C. Adverse events after immunization with aluminium-containing DTP vaccines: systematic review of the evidence. A list of vaccine ingredients can be found on the Patient Information Leaflet (PIL) and Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC) sheet for each vaccine.