Can vaccines cause autoimmune disease?
Here is what the checked sources say. Each title links to the original.
Autoimmune, neurological, and venous thromboembolic adverse events after immunisation of adolescent girls with quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine in Denmark and Sweden: cohort study
A national registry study of 997,585 girls aged 10 to 17 in Denmark and Sweden, 296,826 of whom got HPV vaccine, looking up to 180 days after each dose. Of 53 outcomes screened, 29 had enough cases to analyze. Of 23 autoimmune conditions, 20 showed no increase. Three (Behçet's syndrome, Raynaud's disease, type 1 diabetes) were statistically significant but each met only one of three pre-set criteria for a real signal and showed no timing pattern. The authors found no evidence of a link for the outcomes studied. Two authors have had maker grants for other studies.
Vaccines and Multiple Sclerosis
Plain-language summary of studies on vaccines and multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease. In two large cohorts of nurses (121,700 and 116,671 women), hepatitis B vaccine was not linked to MS. In 643 patients with MS relapses, hepatitis B, tetanus and flu vaccines were not linked to relapse. In a separate study of 180 patients, flu infection was more likely than flu vaccine to worsen symptoms. Studies of many other vaccines also found no sign they cause or worsen MS.
Incidence of narcolepsy after H1N1 influenza and vaccinations: Systematic review and meta-analysis
After the 2009 H1N1 flu campaign, narcolepsy, an immune-related sleep disorder, rose in several countries. This review found the risk appears limited to one vaccine, Pandemrix, used in Europe. In the first year after vaccination, risk rose 5 to 14 times in children and teens and 2 to 7 times in adults, about 1 extra case per 18,400 doses in young people. The authors note the evidence comes from observational studies prone to bias, and that narcolepsy remains rare.
Human papillomavirus vaccination and risk of autoimmune diseases: A large cohort study of over 2million young girls in France
An independent study by France's medicines agency and national health insurer of 2,252,716 girls aged 13 to 16, 37% of whom got HPV vaccine, over about 33 months. Guillain-Barré syndrome, a nerve disorder, was more common after vaccination: 1.4 versus 0.4 cases per 100,000 person-years. The authors say that, if causal, this means 1 to 2 extra cases per 100,000 girls vaccinated, and call for further study. The other 13 autoimmune diseases studied, including thyroid, bowel and joint conditions, were no more common.