Herpes zoster and simplex reactivation following COVID-19 vaccination: new insights from a vaccine adverse event reporting system (VAERS) database analysis.
Expert Rev Vaccines
; 21(5): 675-684, 2022 05.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1706199
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
A few cases of Herpes Zoster and Simplex reactivation following COVID-19 immunization have been recently described, but the real extent of this suspected adverse event has not been elucidated yet.METHODS:
We performed a nested case/control study by using the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System database. We carried out a case-level clinical review of all Herpes reactivation cases following the administration of COVID-19 vaccines. For cases and controls, significance was set at P = 0.05, differential risk of reporting was assessed for each vaccine as reporting odds ratio and incidence was estimated based on the total number of vaccine doses administered.RESULTS:
Of 6,195 cases included in the analysis (5,934 and 273 reporting Herpes Zoster and Herpes Simplex, respectively) over 90% were non-serious. We found a slightly higher risk of reporting both for Zoster (ROR = 1.49) and Simplex (ROR = 1.51) infections following the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The estimated incidence was approximately 0.7/100,000 and 0.03/100,000 for Zoster and Simplex, respectively.CONCLUSIONS:
The paucity of cases (almost all of non-serious nature) makes the potential occurrence of this adverse effect negligible from clinical standpoints, thus supporting the good safety profile of the COVID-19 vaccination, which remains strongly recommended.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Vaccines
/
Herpes Zoster Vaccine
/
COVID-19
/
Herpes Simplex
/
Herpes Zoster
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Expert Rev Vaccines
Journal subject:
Allergy and Immunology
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
14760584.2022.2044799
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