Conference Coverage

Prevalence of Patients Developing Varicella-Zoster Reactivation After mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine

Jessica Ganga

Researchers found that the risk of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) reactivation is lower after the first and second dose of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine compared with the influenza vaccine. The findings of this study were presented during IDWeek 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts.

For their study, the researchers investigated how frequently patients developed VZV reactivation after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination compared to patients who received the influenza vaccine.

The TriNetX platform and its global health research network were both used to identify more than 100 million patients from various health care organizations. The researchers identified three groups of patients: (1) those who received their first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine between December 2020 and December 2022; (2) patients who received their second mRNA COVID-19 vaccine between December 2020 and December 2022; and (3) patients who received their influenza vaccine between December 2018 and December 2022.

Out of 444,016 patients who received either their first COVID-19 vaccine or the influenza vaccine, 0.04% of the COVID-19 vaccine group were diagnosed with VZV reactivation within 21 days compared with 0.15% of patients in the influenza group. Of the 445,382 patients who received either the second COVID-19 vaccine or the influenza vaccine, 0.04% in the COVID-19 group were diagnosed with VZV reactivation within 21 days while 0.13% in the influenza group were diagnosed with VSV reactivation.

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that there was a lower risk of developing VZV reactivation following the first and second dose of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine than the influenza vaccine.

“The risk of VZV reactivation after mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is very low and hesitance to not receive a COVID-19 vaccine due to concern of VZV reactivation is not substantiated,” the researchers concluded.

 

Reference:

Lazbin S, Kaelber DC. Prevalence of varicella-zoster virus reactivation after mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and influenza vaccine. Paper presented at IDWeek 2023; October 11-15, 2023; Boston, MA. Accessed December 19, 2023. https://idweek.org/