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Do Vaccines Cause Arthralgia or Arthritis?

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The Clinician’s Vaccine Safety Resource Guide

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Abstract

Infections may trigger or contribute to the pathogenesis of arthritis. Thus, vaccines may prevent arthritis by protecting against natural infections. Rubella-containing vaccines (e.g. MMR) can cause mild, acute, transient arthralgia or arthritis, rarely in children but commonly in certain adult women (between 10-25% of adult female vaccinees without preexisting rubella immunity), usually beginning 1-3 weeks after vaccination and then persisting up to 3 weeks. Other vaccines currently routinely recommended to the general population in the U.S. have not been shown to cause chronic arthralgia or arthritis.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    These conclusions do not necessarily consider vaccines recommended only for special populations in the United States such as Yellow Fever vaccine (international travelers) or Smallpox vaccine (military personnel).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Epidemiologist, Institute for Vaccine Safety, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Matthew Z. Dudley PhD, MSPH

  2. Professor, Departments of International Health and Health, Behavior and Society, Director, Institute for Vaccine Safety, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Daniel A. Salmon PhD, MPH

  3. Professor Emeritus, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Professor Emeritus, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Director Emeritus, Institute for Vaccine Safety, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Neal A. Halsey MD

  4. Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, Global Health, and Epidemiology, Emory University, Associate Director, Emory Vaccine Center, Director, Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (Emory-UGA CEIRS), Former President, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), Atlanta, GA, USA

    Walter A. Orenstein MD, DSc (Hon)

  5. Associate Director for Behavioral Research, Institute for Vaccine Safety, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Rupali J. Limaye PhD, MPH, MA

  6. Associate Professor, Pediatrics-Infectious Diseases, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO, USA

    Sean T. O’Leary MD, MPH

  7. William H. Foege Professor of Global Health, Professor of Epidemiology and Pediatrics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Saad B. Omer MBBS, PhD, MPH

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  1. Matthew Z. Dudley PhD, MSPH
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  2. Daniel A. Salmon PhD, MPH
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  3. Neal A. Halsey MD
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Dudley, M.Z. et al. (2018). Do Vaccines Cause Arthralgia or Arthritis?. In: The Clinician’s Vaccine Safety Resource Guide. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94694-8_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94694-8_23

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