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Emily Jane Woo

Publications and source records attributed to Emily Jane Woo.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Adverse events after hepatitis A B combination vaccine.

In May 2001, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Hepatitis A Inactivated and Hepatitis B Recombinant Vaccine (HEPAB) for immunization of adults. From May 2001 to September 2003, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) received 305 reports of adverse events after HEPAB. Many events were similar to those reported after the monovalent hepatitis A and B vaccines. Non-serious events included constitutional symptoms and local reactions. Serious events included neurologic, hepatobiliary, and dermatologic conditions, and detailed medical and epidemiological review did not suggest a clear pattern of evidence supporting a causal relationship with the vaccine, except for injection site reactions and some allergic reactions.

Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems↗
PubMed2005

Comparing data mining methods on the VAERS database.

PURPOSE: Data mining may enhance traditional surveillance of vaccine adverse events by identifying events that are reported more commonly after administering one vaccine than other vaccines. Data mining methods find signals as the proportion of times a condition or group of conditions is reported soon after the administration of a vaccine; thus it is a relative proportion compared across vaccines, and not an absolute rate for the condition. The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) contains approximately 150 000 reports of adverse events that are possibly associated with vaccine administration. METHODS: We studied four data mining techniques: empirical Bayes geometric mean (EBGM), lower-bound of the EBGM's 90% confidence interval (EB05), proportional reporting ratio (PRR), and screened PRR (SPRR). We applied these to the VAERS database and compared the agreement among methods and other performance properties, particularly focusing on the vaccine-event combinations with the highest numerical scores in the various methods. RESULTS: The vaccine-event combinations with the highest numerical scores varied substantially among the methods. Not all combinations representing known associations appeared in the top 100 vaccine-event pairs for all methods. CONCLUSIONS: The four methods differ in their ranking of vaccine-COSTART pairs. A given method may be superior in certain situations but inferior in others. This paper examines the statistical relationships among the four estimators. Determining which method is best for public health will require additional analysis that focuses on the true alarm and false alarm rates using known vaccine-event associations. Evaluating the properties of these data mining methods will help determine the value of such methods in vaccine safety surveillance.

Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems↗
PubMed2004

Vaccine risk perception among reporters of autism after vaccination: vaccine adverse event reporting system 1990-2001.

OBJECTIVES: We investigated vaccine risk perception among reporters of autism to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). METHODS: We conducted structured interviews with 124 parents who reported autism and related disorders to VAERS from 1990 to 2001 and compared results with those of a published survey of parents in the general population. RESULTS: Respondents perceived vaccine-preventable diseases as less serious than did other parents. Only 15% of respondents deemed immunization extremely important for children's health; two thirds had withheld vaccines from their children. CONCLUSIONS: Views of parents who believe vaccines injured their children differ significantly from those of the general population regarding the benefits of immunization. Understanding the factors that shape this perspective can improve communication among vaccine providers, policymakers, and parents/patients.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Extensive limb swelling after immunization: reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.

Extensive limb swelling (ELS) has been reported after vaccination with a limited number of vaccine types. We sought to describe vaccine types involved in and the clinical characteristics of ELS cases reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). A case of ELS was defined as any report of edema extending at least to the elbow or knee of a vaccinated extremity. Four hundred ninety-seven cases were identified, with some describing swelling from the shoulder to the hand or the hip to the foot. Patient age ranged from 0.1 to 91 years. The proportion of reports of ELS associated with a given vaccine, among all VAERS reports received for that vaccine, varied substantially among vaccines. Most reactions began within 1 day after vaccination and involved other signs of inflammation. Postvaccination ELS can involve both the proximal and distal segments of the extremity, affects all age groups, and occurs after vaccination with a broad range of vaccines.

Adolescent↗