|
: Lupus 2001;10(3):237-240 |
Vaccination and systemic lupus erythematosus:
the bidirectional dilemmas.
Aron-Maor A, Shoenfeld Y.
Department of Internal Medicine B and Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Sheba
Medical Center, Sacklea Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Hashomer,
Israel.
Vaccination has been perhaps the most important achievement in medicine of the
last century. A hoard of infectious diseases that used to claim the lives of
many, especially children, have been prevented and some even eradicated.
However, it is possible that within this gift there is hidden a 'Trojan Horse'.
During the last decade increasing numbers of reports regarding possible
autoimmune side effects of vaccination, have been published. The existing data
does not link the vaccines and the autoimmune phenomena observed in a causal
relationship, nevertheless a temporal connection has been described. In this
article we wish to address in particular the possible link between vaccines and
systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), namely two aspects of this
inter-relationship: the occurrence of SLE following vaccination and outcome of
immunization of known SLE patients.
Publication Types:
·
Review
·
Review literature
PMID: 11315360 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]