Key clinical point: Vaccination against influenza was well tolerated in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who mainly experienced short-term nonserious adverse events following immunization (AEFI), with the risk for MS relapse not being significantly different than those who were not vaccinated.
Major finding: Overall, 60.2% of patients did not experience any vaccine-related AEFIs, with pain at the injection site (68.1%), headache (10.6%), flu-like symptoms (17%), and fatigue (4.3%) being the major nonserious short-term AEFIs. The long-term AEFIs included flu-like symptoms, COVID-19, and MS relapse, with incidences of infection or MS relapse ( P = .65) and cumulative survival rate ( P = .21) not being significantly different between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.
Study details: This was a single-center, prospective, vaccination-vigilance trial including 194 patients with MS, of whom 113 patients received any of the recommended flu vaccines and 81 did not.
Disclosures: The study received no external funding. GT Maniscalco declared serving on speaking and advisory boards and receiving speaker fees from various sources. Other authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Maniscalco GT et al. Flu vaccination in multiple sclerosis patients: A monocentric prospective vaccine-vigilance study. Expert Opin Drug Saf. 2022 (Feb 22). Doi: 10.1080/14740338.2022.2044787