A handful of COVID-19 vaccine recipients who also suffer from weakened immune systems developed shingles a few days after getting the shot, according to a new study
Scientists in Israel studied 491 patients with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases, and six of them — or 1.2 percent — experienced the infection after receiving the Pfizer vaccine, according to the study in the journal Rheumatology.
By comparison, no patients in their control group developed the infection, which is characterized by a painful rash, according to the researchers from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Carmel Medical Center in Haifa.
Shingles — which is also known as herpes zoster, though is not the same as genital herpes — comes fromthe virus that causes chickenpox. The virus stays dormant in people who have had the chilldhood disease, and can reactivate in later life as shingles, according to the CDC.
Five of the six patients in the study were young, though the infection is generally more common in those over the age of 50. Five of them experienced shingles after the first dose of the vaccine, and the sixth got it after the second.
But researchers said it’s still unclear whether the vaccine may have triggered the virus to reactivate — or if it was due to the patients having weakened immune systems.
“We cannot say the vaccine is the cause at this point,” Dr. Victoria Furer, the lead author, told the Jerusalem Post. “We can say it might be a trigger in some patients.”
Furer said further research is necessary. One implication could be that patients with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases are encouraged to get vaccinated against shingles before getting their COVID-19 shot.
“We should not scare people,” she told the outlet. “The overall message is to get vaccinated. It is just important to be aware.”