Vaccinating with a COVID-19 Vaccine: Experience of the Tertiary Allergology Center

Eglė Žilėnaitė,Kęstutis Černiauskas,Laura Malinauskienė,Linas Griguola,Kotryna Linauskienė,Violeta Kvedarienė,Anželika Chomičienė

doi:10.15388/amed.2022.29.1.1

Eglė Žilėnaitė, Kęstutis Černiauskas + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.15388/amed.2022.29.1.1

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Abstract

Background: Allergic reactions after messenger RNA (mRNA)-based COVID-19 vaccines have been reported but detailed descriptions and further actions are not well characterized. Objective: To describe the symptoms of possible allergic reactions after the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and outcomes of further vaccination. Methods: We descriptively analyzed data of adult (≥18 years of age) patients, who were sent for vaccination to our outpatient center for the Diagnostics and Treatment of Allergic and Immune diseases. All patients were vaccinated with the Pfizer–BioNTech Comirnaty® vaccine.Results: From January 2021 to July 2021 twenty-two patients were vaccinated in our center. Six patients experienced a reaction after the first Comirnaty® dose in different vaccination centers. The majority of them complained of various types of rashes after the first dose, one case was consistent with anaphylaxis. The latter patient was tested with the skin prick using Pfizer–BioNTech Comirnaty® vaccine and the test was negative. Other sixteen patients were vaccinated in our center from the first dose because of past allergic reactions to other medication or due to concomitant mast cell disorder. All patients were vaccinated without any immediate adverse reactions.Conclusions: None of our patients experienced repeated cutaneous reactions after the second dose. Patients with previous anaphylaxis or mastocytosis also were safely vaccinated.

Highlights

Introduction inMarch of 2020, World Health Organization assessed that a disease caused by a novel coronavirus can be characterized as a pandemic
Other sixteen patients were vaccinated in our center from the first dose because of past allergic reactions to other medication or due to concomitant mast cell disorder
Given the importance of widespread vaccination, we aimed to review clinical cases of patients vaccinated in our Pulmonology and Allergology center at Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos and to describe the symptomatology of reactions to the Pfizer vaccine in order to improve future vaccine counseling

Summary

Introduction

Introduction inMarch of 2020, World Health Organization assessed that a disease caused by a novel coronavirus (a COVID-19 disease) can be characterized as a pandemic. (at the time of writing this article) registered COVID-19 vaccines in the European Union are: Moderna Spikevax®, AstraZeneca Vaxzevria®, Pfizer–BioNTech Comirnaty® and Jannsen Pharmaceutica NV COVID-19 Vaccine Jansen® All these vaccines are available in Lithuania. Since the approval of COVID-19 vaccines several cases of anaphylaxis were reported with the calculated rate of the severe allergic reaction being higher than expected (11.1 cases per million doses for Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine) [4]. In response to these reports British Medicines Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued stricter recommendations that persons with a history of anaphylaxis to a vaccine, medicine or food should not receive Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine [5]. Allergic reactions after messenger RNA (mRNA)-based COVID-19 vaccines have been reported but detailed descriptions and further actions are not well characterized

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