Hepatitis B vaccine and ME/CFS

[charles shepherd]

We’re collecting information on hepatitis B vaccination and ME/CFS – can you help?

Dr Charles Shepherd, medical adviser to the ME Association, has a longstanding interest in the role of vaccinations as possible trigger factors in the development of ME/CFS – in particular, hepatitis B vaccine.

If you have been in touch with the MEA regarding hepatitis B vaccination and ME/CFS in the past, or have new information to pass on, please contact Dr Shepherd via:

meconnect@meassociation.org.uk

More details on MEA website:

http://www.meassociation.org.uk/201...ation-and-mecfs-can-you-help-13-january-2016/

 

[charles shepherd]

Thanks for all the replies so far to ME Connect - I must add that this request relates to the UK only

CS

 

[barbc56]

This sounds like an interesting endeavor worth investigating but it does bring up a question I've always been curious about.

It can be tricky attributing a vaccine to an adverse heath event. When you get a vaccination its an event that may stand out more, easily remembered so an erroneous connection may be made when it could be something else going on or would have occured anyway. I believed this happened with the connection between vaccinations and the incidence of narcolepsy but I need to check this out. I wouldn't think this applies to an immediate reaction from a vaccination.

I'm not saying this shouldn't be done nor that it's not plausible for this to happen especially to a subset of patients. At this time you may be at the stage of gathering information.

I'm not sure how research avoids this pitfall. Any ideas?

Good luck.

Barb

 

[BurnA]

@barbc56 I imagine they look at the incidence of ME in people who got the vaccine and compare it to those who didn't. If the incidence is higher in the vaccine group then there is reason to suspect the vaccine.

 

[*GG*]

I had the flue shot a few years before coming down with CFS.

GG

 

[Thomas]

This vaccine, as well as the flu vaccine has been implicated in many people's onset of ME that I have met over the years. I had the HepB as a teenager in 1996 without any adverse reactions at the time. It was a flu shot that triggered my illness in November of 2011 that will haunt me until the day that I die. Received the shot November 10th, 2011 and immediately felt tachycardia and fatigue. 10 days later, on November 20th, I had the "the flu" that was my sudden onset ME.

Having said that, the last time I remember feeling absolutely truly well was up until I got the HepB shot, but that could have been simply because I was a 16 year old kid who was having a good time.

I'm in Canada so I can't participate in this survey, but I just thought I'd relay my experience.