Varilrix Special Precautions

As with other vaccines, the administration of VARILRIX should be postponed in subjects suffering from acute severe febrile illness. In healthy subjects the presence of a minor infection, however, is not a contra-indication for vaccination.
Syncope (fainting) can occur following, or even before, any vaccination as a psychogenic response to the needle injection. It is important that procedures are in place to avoid injury from faints.
As with all injectable vaccines, appropriate medical treatment and supervision should always be readily available in case of rare anaphylactic reaction following the administration of the vaccine.
Alcohol and other disinfecting agents must be allowed to evaporate from the skin before injection of the vaccine since they can inactivate the attenuated viruses in the vaccine.
Limited protection against varicella may be obtained by vaccination up to 72 hours after exposure to natural disease.
As for other varicella vaccines, cases of varicella disease have been shown to occur in persons who have previously received VARILRIX. These breakthrough cases are usually mild, with a fewer number of lesions and less fever as compared to cases in unvaccinated individuals.
Transmission of the Oka vaccine virus has been shown to occur at a very low rate in seronegative contacts of vaccinees with rash. Transmission of the Oka vaccine from a vaccinee who does not develop a rash to seronegative contacts cannot be excluded.
The mild nature of the rash in the healthy contacts indicates that the virus remains attenuated after passage through human hosts.
There is limited data on the use of VARILRIX in immunocompromised subjects, therefore vaccination should be considered with caution and only when, in the opinion of the physician, the benefits outweigh the risks.
Immunocompromised subjects who have no contraindication for this vaccination (see Contraindications) may not respond as well as immunocompetent subjects, therefore some of these subjects may acquire varicella despite appropriate vaccine administration. Immunocompromised subjects should be monitored carefully for signs of varicella.
Very few reports exist on disseminated varicella with internal organ involvement following vaccination with Oka varicella vaccine strain mainly in immunocompromised subjects.
VARILRIX must not be administered intravascularly or intradermally.