If you are allergic to eggs should you avoid flu vaccines? Elizabeth Tracey reports
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The majority of flu vaccines are grown in eggs, so people with egg allergies would avoid them. Johns Hopkins vaccine expert Anna Durbin says that landscape has changed.
Durbin: The original flu vaccines the way they're made is we pick a strain of wild type influenza then it's grown in eggs. And then it's inactivated, broken up and given as a vaccine. What we recommend is that what is that allergy to eggs? Unless it's severe other reactions that are more mild may not exclude you from getting an egg grown flu vaccine, but we also have a different type of vaccine that isn't grown in eggs that may be more appropriate for you. :33
The other place flu vaccines are grown is in tissue culture, a laboratory medium. Durbin says talk with your provider to find out where to obtain such a vaccine if you do have severe egg allergies. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.