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Herpes Zoster Following a Nucleoside-Modified Messenger RNA COVID-19 Vaccine
Frédéric Dezoteux1, Édouard Massip1, Pierre Marcant1
1CHU Lille, France. Drs. Dezoteux, Massip, Marcant, and Staumont-Sallé are from Service de Dermatologie. Dr. Sobaszek is from Service de Médecine du travail. Drs. Chopin and Vuotto are from Service des Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales. Drs. Dezoteux, Marcant, and Staumont-Sallé also are from University of Lille, Inserm, CHU Lille, INFINITE - Institute for Translational Research in Inflammation, France.
Abstract:
Herpes zoster (HZ) was suspected as a predictive cutaneous manifestation of COVID-19, with a debated prognostic significance. We report a series of 5 cases of HZ occurring after vaccination with a nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty, Pfizer-BioNTech). These new cases do not prove causality between COVID-19 vaccination and HZ. The pathophysiologic mechanism remains elusive, but local vaccine-induced immunomodulation may be involved. The occurrence of HZ does not justify avoiding the second injection of vaccine due to the benefit of vaccination.
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