Vaccines safe, some side effects: Study

WASHINGTON - Vaccines can cause certain side effects with serious ones appearing very rarely, and there is no link with autism and Type 1 diabetes, the US Institute of Medicine said in the first comprehensive safety review in 17 years.

The report released on Thursday is not aimed at nervous parents. The side effects it lists as proven are some that doctors long have known about, such as fever-caused seizures and occasional brain inflammation.

Instead, the review comes at the request of the US government's Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which pays damages to people who are injured by vaccines. US law requires this type of independent review as officials update side effects on that list to be sure they agree with the latest science.