New research claims to find a link between receiving one mRNA vaccine for covid-19 and shingles, also known as herpes zoster, in certain people with autoimmune diseases. But while the link is worth investigating, the average person shouldn’t have to worry about this potential risk or pay close attention to misleading news articles about the study
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 compared them with a similar group of people who did not have autoimmune diseasesOf the 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, the authors wrote, show that more research is needed to “clarify the association” between the Pfizer mRNA vaccine and shingles, a disease caused by the disease. varicella-zoster virus. Importantly, this does not mean the vaccine she gave the shingles virus.
Lead author Victoria Furer was careful about the Jerusalem Post On On Monday they could not say at this point that the “vaccine is the cause” of these cases. She added that at most, vaccination “may be a trigger in some patients.” But that didn’t stop the New York Post from running the results in the most clickbaity way possible, with his cup Today: “Herpes Infection May Be Linked To Covid-19 Vaccine, Study Says.”
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The above is technically true. Shingles is caused by the same virus responsible for chicken pox, a member of the herpes virus family called varicella zoster. But when people see the words ‘herpes infection’,“most will no doubt think we are talking about genital herpes, the sexually transmitted infection caused by two other herpes viruses. The Jerusalem Post, because of his part, made clear that the study was about herpes zoster, but people would probably recognize the disease more often as shingles.
Simply calling shingles a herpes infection is misleading in another way. That’s because it is not a new infection but rather the reactivation of the virus that has been dormant in the body for years to decades after a first case of chicken pox. This often happens because the immune system weakens as we age, but it is also more likely to happen at a younger age in people with autoimmune diseases. Once shingles resurfaces, it can cause a signature rash and sometimes excruciating nerve pain that can linger after the infection has come back again. Fortunately they are vaccinated chicken pox seem to have a much lower risk of shingles, and there is now a vaccine available specifically for shingles
On the face of it, it’s not implausible that vaccination with covid-19 could increase a person’s risk of shingles reactivation. There are indications that covid-19 can do this itself trigger shingles, because of its effects on the immune system or the stress it causes in humans. And at least some scientists, dates back to the late nineties, to have Worried that the immune response is triggered by a vaccine can make people temporarily more vulnerable to shinglesAll of these theoretical risks can be amplified in people whose immune systems have already been compromised or who are taking drugs to dampen their overactive immune systems, as were some patients in this study.
At least another case report and several anecdotes from doctors have also suggested a link between covid-19 vaccines and shingles. But other experts are right warned which we simply don’t have strong evidence of a direct causal relationship between the two at this point. E.in this new study, the association does not appear to be overwhelmingly clear, as only 1.2% of patients with an autoimmune disease developed shingles after vaccination. Meanwhile, there is none so far indication of an increased risk of shingles following vaccination in the general public.
So yes, while scientists should continue to study this link, it’s unlikely to be anything more than a very rare risk in some people who are already vulnerable to shingles. And no, the covid-19 vaccine will not give you herpes.