Pfizer’s Covid vaccine may trigger herpes infections, says study

A recent study published in the journal Rheumatology found six women out of 491 patients who developed a skin rash known as herpes zoster (HZ) infection — or shingles — within three to 14 days of receiving either the first or second dose of the Pfizer’s COVID vaccine.

Researchers from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Carmel Medical Center in Haifa also found the risk of developing HZ infection following a COVID vaccine increases among people with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases, Jerusalem Post reported.

Out of 491 patients, six people — or 1.2% — experienced the infection, researchers said. Five of them developed the shingles infection after the first dose and one after the second.

Shingles is a painful and itchy condition consisting of blisters that scab over in seven to 10 days and take two to four weeks to fully resolve. The most common complication is postherpetic neuralgia — severe and debilitating nerve pain that can take months or years to clear up, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Lead researcher Dr. Victoria Furer said five of the six patients who developed HZ were young, had mild cases of autoimmune disease and were taking little if any medications for it — which means they should not have been at increased risk for developing the infection. HZ tends to develop more in people over the age of 50.

“We cannot say the vaccine is the cause at this point,” Furer said. “We can say it might be a trigger in some patients.” She said further research, including a larger epidemiological study, would be needed to prove cause and effect.

In early February, Google Trends showed the search term “covid shingles” hit peak popularity as a Reddit message board went viral with young users sharing stories of developing shingles after receiving a COVID vaccine.

A 27-year-old developed shingles two-and-a-half weeks after receiving the first COVID vaccine. “Anybody else have a similar experience?” the person asked in the post. “My doctor said there are anecdotes out there similar to mine.”

Another user responded that it was probably not a coincidence and entirely possible to awaken a shingles case after a vaccine. But infectious disease specialists disagreed.

Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and spokesperson for IDSA, agreed there was no evidence of a link between shingles and the COVID vaccine.

Both doctors said they weren’t surprised by the appearance of shingles cases, but explained that it was due to shingles occurring in one in three adults — mostly older.

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According to experts and the lead author of the study, the solution is not to forgo the COVID vaccine, but to get the shingles vaccine, a live attenuated vaccine associated with a risk of side effects, including Guillain-Barré syndrome, shingles, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, transverse myelitis, meningitis, facial paralysis, vision problems and other injuries.