Administration of influenza vaccines to patients with egg allergy: Update for the 2010-2011 season.

Patients who have generated IgE antibodies to an allergen are at risk for anaphylaxis with systemic exposure to that allergen. Thus patients who have IgE-mediated egg allergy are at risk for anaphylaxis if injected with influenza vaccines containing egg protein. Published studies, however, suggest that this risk is actually quite small, likely because of the very low quantity of ovalbumin in influenza vaccines, and that with appropriate precautions, influenza vaccine can be safely administered, even to patients with severe egg allergy. Egg allergy is relatively common among candidates for influenza vaccination because target groups for the vaccine include those with higher rates of egg allergy, specifically all children and young adults (from 6 months through 18 years for seasonal influenza and from 6 months through 24 years for H1N1 influenza) and all patients with asthma. Of note, the intranasal vaccines are not recommended for children with asthma, and a large percentage of children with egg allergy have asthma.