- Researchers say vaccines do not appear to raise the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) flare-ups requiring hospitalization.
- They say the findings may help dispel some concerns about vaccines causing the development of MS or flare-up incidents.
- The American Academy of Neurology advises people with MS to get fully vaccinated.
Vaccines don’t appear to trigger major flare-ups of multiple sclerosis (MS), a new
In their work, researchers studied the medical records of more than 100,000 people in a national health claims database in France.
The study looked at reports of vaccine exposure prior to the onset of hospitalization due to an MS flare-up, then compared these flare-up rates with those that occurred prior to vaccine exposure for each person.
Vaccines examined in the study included diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, pertussis (Haemophilus influenzae), influenza, and pneumococcal. The COVID-19 vaccine was not included because the study period occurred prior to the start of the 2020 pandemic.
Of the 106,523 people with MS in the study, about a third experienced a flare-up of symptoms requiring hospitalization during the study period.
However, researchers reported there was no significant association between the flare-ups and exposure to any of the vaccines studied.
“However, considering the number of vaccine subtypes available, further studies are needed to confirm these results,” the study authors wrote.
“Many relapses in the U.S. are treated on an outpatient basis, so a patient might be more reassured by a study that looked at the association between relapses and vaccination,” Julie Fiol, a multiple sclerosis certified nurse and associate vice president for clinical innovation and strategy at the National MS Society, told Medical News Today. “In general, studies have concluded vaccination is safe for people living with MS.”
Fiol said that vaccines “are a key strategy for preventing illness and are…
Read the full article here