Hib (haemophilus influenzae type b) vaccine and Type 1 diabetes: This 2002 prospective study followed nearly 50,000 children from the time they were born until they were 10 to 12 years old. HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine and Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS): In a 2015 study of more than 1.7 million people ages 9 to 26 years, there was no increased risk in getting GBS after the HPV vaccine. Here are some specific examples of just a few large, long-term studies that have been done on vaccines and autoimmune diseases: The Global Advisory Committee for Vaccine Safety (GACVS) from the World Health Organization (WHO) looked at all vaccine safety data worldwide from 1999 to 2019 and said that “vaccines do not increase the risk of autoimmune diseases.” Researchers have done a lot of studies that look into the risk of autoimmune disease after vaccines. Do vaccines increase the risk of developing an autoimmune disease? If a viral infection can trigger an autoimmune disease, why not the vaccine that prevents that infection? A look at the research can clear up some common misunderstandings.

But some people worry that a vaccine may also trigger your body’s immune system to turn against itself. This includes the seasonal influenza vaccine, pneumonia vaccines, hepatitis B virus infection vaccine, human papillomavirus vaccines, and even the new shingles vaccine.Įliza Chakravarty, MD, is an associate member of the Arthritis & Clinical Immunology Research Program at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.Most people would agree that anything that helps your immune system fight off infections is a good thing. The overwhelming majority of routine vaccinations these days are not made from live viruses, so there is no way to become infected with the disease from the vaccine itself. It is important to remember that no vaccine is 100% protective, so there is always a chance that a vaccinated person will still get the infection they were vaccinated against. But often in these cases, patients are infected with a somewhat milder form of the disease and are sick for fewer days and with less severity. This is all to say that an imperfect response is better than not getting vaccinated at all. Studies have shown that some people with lupus may have lower immunological responses to vaccines compared with otherwise healthy people of the same age. It is important for patients to get vaccinated against influenza as soon as possible and before the infection hits their local area. The other side to that issue is that if a patient is experiencing a disease-free interval and his or her medications have been tapered to the lowest possible doses, it might be a good time to review his or her vaccination history to be sure all vaccinations are up to date. This process gets trickier with the seasonal influenza vaccine, which is recommended annually. However, if your patient has lupus and is having a severe flare that requires intensive medications, it may be best to advise him or her to delay vaccinations until the disease activity slows. This does not mean that a patient should stop all of his or her medications just to get vaccinated.

And they should get vaccinated but with a few caveats. To maximize the efficacy of any vaccine, it is optimal to administer vaccinations when lupus is in remission, and patients are on the lowest doses of immunosuppressive medications. Yes, it is safe for patients with lupus to receive vaccinations. Patients with lupus also have a higher risk of more-serious complications from those infections. Because of the underlying disease, as well as many (but not all) of the medications for lupus, people with lupus can be more susceptible to infections than other people. The question about the safety and efficacy of vaccinations is very important for everyone but especially for patients with lupus.

Lupus and flu shot side effect