Varicella zoster virus-induced neurological disease after COVID-19 vaccination: a retrospective monocentric study.

The description of every possible adverse effect or event related to vaccines is mandatory during the ongoing worldwide COVID-19 vaccination program. Although cases of cutaneous varicella zoster virus (VZV) reactivation after COVID-19 vaccination have been increasingly reported in literature and database sets, a description of VZV-induced neurological disease (VZV-ND) is still lacking. In the present study, we retrospectively evaluated patients admitted to our clinic and diagnosed with VZV-ND during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign (January-April 2021) and in the same months in the previous two years. We identified three patients with VZV-ND after COVID-19 vaccination and 19 unvaccinated VZV-ND cases as controls. In the case-control analysis, the two groups showed no difference in clinical features, results of diagnostic investigations, and outcome. Thus, VZV reactivation with neurological involvement might be a possible event triggered by COVID-19 vaccination, but the benefit following COVID-19 vaccination overcomes significantly the potential risk associated with a VZV reactivation. © 2021. The Author(s).

Citation

Samir Abu-Rumeileh, Benjamin Mayer, Veronika Still, Hayrettin Tumani, Markus Otto, Makbule Senel. Varicella zoster virus-induced neurological disease after COVID-19 vaccination: a retrospective monocentric study. Journal of neurology. 2022 Apr;269(4):1751-1757

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PMID: 34724572

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