medwireNews: The Pfizer–BioNTech (BNT162b2) vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 is well tolerated and does not cause disease flares in young people with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) treated with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, suggest findings from a small study.
Dimitra Dimopoulou and colleagues from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece evaluated data from 21 young people aged 16–21 years (median 17 years) with JIA in clinical remission who received both doses of the vaccine in April–May 2021. The majority of participants (74%) experienced local reactions, while less than a fifth (19%) experienced systemic reactions such as headache, fatigue, myalgia, or transient arthralgia.
The researchers say that neither the type of JIA – polyarticular or psoriatic JIA or enthesitis-related arthritis – nor treatment with etanercept versus adalimumab influenced rates of local or systemic reactions. There were no cases of JIA exacerbation based on JADAS-27 scores measured at 1 month prior to vaccination and 1 and 3 months after.
Despite the small patient numbers in the study, “it may be concluded that the vaccine assures an adequate safety and tolerability profile and [does not provoke] disease flare” in adolescents with JIA, write Dimopoulou et al in a letter to Arthritis & Rheumatology.
medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare Ltd. © 2021 Springer Healthcare Ltd, part of the Springer Nature Group
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