Article: Reactivation of herpes virus infection by vaccination....

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Schweiz Med Wochenschr. 2000 Nov 4;130(44):1685-8. Related Articles,

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[Reactivation of herpes virus infections by vaccination: evidence or

coincidence?]

[Article in German]

Walter R, Hartmann K, Pool V, Gargiullo P, Kuhn M.

Departement fur Innere Medizin, Universitatsspital Zurich.

Varicella zoster and herpes simplex viruses cause latent infections

by persisting in human cells. Reactivation has been associated with

increasing age, immunosuppression, cancer, stress, fever, exposure

to ultraviolet light, and tissue damage. Based on three cases

reported to the Swiss Drug Monitoring Centre SANZ, we postulated

previously that vaccinations may trigger reactivation of herpes

virus infections due to vaccine-induced immunomodulation. In the

meantime, 10 new cases of reactivated herpes virus infections soon

after vaccinations have been reported. They involved 5 women and 5

men with an age range between 16 and 60. In only one case had a

trauma preceded, otherwise healthy subjects with no known relevant

comorbidity were vaccinated. The clustering of reports after

publication points to a previous underreporting of similar cases.

This may be explained by the fact that both vaccinations and

reactivations of herpes virus infections are frequent, and a causal

link is not suspected. However, these new cases do not prove

causality, and extensive epidemiological or experimental studies are

needed to elucidate the possible link between vaccination and

reactivation of herpes virus infections.

PMID: 11103441 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]