Hair loss after routine immunizations

In early 1994, a concerned mother called the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to report that her young daughter had lost nearly all the hair on her head after her second and third doses of hepatitis B vaccine. This prompted FDA researchers to review national vaccine safety systems, and they found a total of 60 cases in which adults and children had lost varying amounts of hair; while a number of different vaccines had been blamed as the cause, in over 75% it was the hepatitis B vaccine.

In a small...