BOSTON– The herpes zoster vaccine may be safe to give to patients who are taking biologic therapies and have quiescent rheumatologic disorders, based on preliminary data from two studies presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology.
Dr. Jeffrey Curtis of the University of Alabama at Birmingham presented data about the extent of the increased risk for herpes zoster in rheumatology patients, especially those with systemic lupus erythematosus, and some intriguing results on 630 patients on biologic therapies who inadvertently got the vaccine.
Dr. Stephen Lindsey of Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La., said that he continues to evolve a protocol for herpes zoster vaccination of his patients with rheumatologic disorders.
In our exclusive interview at ACR14, the two researchers discussed the implications of their separate studies on the subject and revealed the next steps of a prospective study of herpes zoster vaccination in patients with rheumatologic disorders that is just getting underway.