New research suggests finding a link between receiving a mRNA vaccine for covid-19 and shingles, also known as herpes zoster, in certain people with autoimmune conditions. While the link may be worthwhile, the average person should not worry about this potential risk or pay close attention to misleading news reports about the research.
The study was published last week in the journal Rheumatology by Scientists in Israel. They studied people with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases, conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, and compare it with a similar group of people who had no autoimmune diseases. Of nearly 500 patients with these conditions, they identified six (1.2%) who developed shingles shortly after receiving the Pfizer / BioNTech covid-19 vaccine, compared with zero people in the control group. who also got the chance.
The findings, as the authors wrote, show that more research is needed to explain the link between the Pfizer mRNA vaccine and shingles. varicella-zoster virus. It is important that this does not mean the vaccine gave them the shingles virus.
Lead author Victoria Furer was careful about the Jerusalem Post on Monday that they could not say at this stage that the “vaccine is the cause” of these cases. At most, she added, vaccination “could be a trigger in some patients.” But that did not stop the New York Post from turning the results into the most clickbaity way possible, with his heading today: “Herpes infection may have been linked to the covid-19 vaccine,” says study.
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The above is technically true. Shingles is caused by the same virus that is responsible for chickenpox, a member of the herpes virus family called varicella-zoster. But if people use the words “herpes infection,“The most will no doubt think we are talking about genital herpes, the sexually transmitted infection caused by two other herpes viruses. The Jerusalem Post, for its part, made it is clear that the study is about herpes zoster, but that people would do it recognizes the disease probably more frequently than shingles.
Simply calling shingles a herpes infection is misleading in another way. This is because it is not a new infection but rather the reactivation of the virus that has lain in the body for years to decades, after an initial case of chickenpox. It often happens due to the weakening of the immune system as we age, but it is also likely happen at a younger age in people with autoimmune disorders. Once shingles reappears, it can cause characteristic rashes and sometimes painful nerve pain that can persist after the infection has recurred. Happy are those vaccinated against chickenpox it seems that the shingles is much lower, and there is now a vaccine available specifically for shingles.
On the face of it, it is not unlikely that vaccination against covid-19 may increase someone’s risk of shingles reactivation. There is evidence that covid-19 itself trigger shingles, due to its effect on the immune system or the stress it causes. And at least some scientists, dating from the late 1990s, has worried that the immune response is caused by any vaccine can temporarily make people more vulnerable to shingles. All of these theoretical risks can be amplified in people whose immune systems are already at risk or who use drugs to suppress their overactive immune system, as some of the patients in this study were.
At least one other Case Report and several anecdotes by doctors have also suggested a link between kovid-19 vaccines and shingles. But other experts are right warned what we simply do not have strong evidence of a direct causal link between the two at this stage. Even in this new study, the link does not appear to be overwhelmingly clear, as only 1.2% of patients with an autoimmune condition developed shingles after vaccination. Meanwhile, so far there is no indication of an increased risk of shingles after vaccination in the general public.
So yes, although scientists should study this connection, it is unlikely to be a very rare risk among some people who are already vulnerable to shingles. And no, the covid-19 vaccine does not give you herpes.