MMRV Vaccine No Longer Preferred

Health officials no longer recommend that preference be given to the four-vaccine combination called MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella, varicella). Although it requires two separate injections, rather than just one, the parents of children should first be offered the MMR vaccine and a separate varicella (chicken pox) shot. That’s because fever-related seizures are seen more often in children who receive MMRV instead of the two separate shots. The change was published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on March 14.