COVID-19 vaccine causes acute hepatitis – Experts reveal

Researchers have in a report indicated that COVID-19 vaccine could cause acute hepatitis in human. Researchers revealed that a recent investigation on a man who received an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine showed that taking the vaccine “may trigger immune-mediated hepatitis.”

The report published in the Journal of Hepatology in April, was said to have detected the case of a man in Germany, 52 years old, who, after two to three weeks of receiving an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech (the BNT163b2 vaccine), developed acute hepatitis, liver inflammation.

The Report indicated that the Researchers found that highly activated T cells “accumulate and are evenly distributed in the different areas” of the man’s liver after he took the COVID-19 vaccine and developed acute hepatitis.

T cells were identified as a type of white blood cell that comprise a key part of the immune system. These cells focus on fighting new infections.

The Researchers said that the patient experienced nausea and fatigue about 10 days after his first dose of the vaccine and was subsequently found to have acute hepatitis.

“The hepatitis resolved on its own after about three days. He had a second dose of the vaccine 41 days after his first dose. Symptoms of nausea and fatigue returned 20 days later—he was given an oral steroid medication and initially improved. He relapsed 39 days later, after which he was successfully treated with systemic immunosuppressive therapy that also included steroids. The man’s liver function tests “subsequently normalized within 8 weeks,” the Researchers highlighted.

Researchers observed the man’s immune response to the COVID-19 vaccine may have contributed to his liver inflammation. The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer “may trigger immune-mediated hepatitis by mechanisms linked to vaccine-induced cellular immunity,” they had said in the case report.

The Researchers observed further: “Within the T cells that were found in the liver, “an enrichment of T cells that are reactive to SARS-CoV-2, suggesting that these vaccine-induced cells can contribute to the liver inflammation in this context.

The Researchers in the report stated: “Specifically, the type of T cell called CD8 T cells “represented the most abundant immune cell subset” found in the liver.

“Our analysis highlights that activated cytotoxic CD8 T cells, including vaccine-induced spike-specific CD8 T cells could contribute to disease pathogenesis.

“Based on their strong enrichment … we speculated that CD8 T cells could be drivers of the hepatic inflammation.”

According to the Researcher, “Autoimmune-hepatitis-like disease after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is now recognized as a rare adverse event not identified in early trials.

“The widespread use of the vaccine with administration of hundreds of million doses worldwide raises also questions of causality vs. coincidence.”

The report did not, however, indicate how frequent such a case occurs, but the researchers indicated that such a scenario is recognized as a “rare adverse event not identified in early trials.”

The report differentiated autoimmune hepatitis from hepatitis triggered by immune responses after COVID-19 vaccination. The former, they said, requires lifelong immunosuppressive therapy in many patients, while the latter is possibly transient.

Meanwhile, several countries that imposed restrictions, including vaccine mandate, have since begun to relax those protocols, having found that they were misguided.