Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain that leads to a person having seizures. Whilst the cause of epilepsy in most people is often unknown, it can include genetic conditions, brain injury or infection, hypoxic insult at birth, brain tumours or neurodegenerative diseases.
Infections, including those that are vaccine preventable (eg. measles, influenza, COVID-19 etc) can trigger seizures in people with epilepsy. Whilst vaccination is generally recommended, in rare instances a vaccine can also cause a seizure. This is why a risk/benefit assessment is important when planning vaccination for people with epilepsy.
Our reference page has recently been updated to detail:
- epilepsy and vaccine-proximate seizures
- management of immunisation in populations with genetic epilepsies prone to vaccine-proximate seizures (Dravet syndrome and GEFS+)
- immunisation recommendations and management.
To view the page in full, follow the link below: