Q: My son is 9 months old and is due for his measles vaccine. Last week he developed egg allergy. Is it safe to give him the vaccination or delay it for sometime; if so for how long?

A:The currently available measles vaccines do not contain egg cross-reacting proteins. Thus you can safely vaccinate your son now for measles by the single vaccine available for measles. Measles vaccine is also a part of MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine, which is recommended at 15 months of age. Of these three vaccine components, mumps vaccine is derived from chick embryo. Nevertheless, in view of extreme rarity of adverse effects, it is recommended that children with egg allergy may be routinely given MMR or mumps vaccine without prior skin testing.