No increased risk of chronic fatigue syndrome after HPV vaccination
Article
|Published
A study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health shows that girls receiving one or more doses of HPV vaccine have no greater risk of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS / ME) than unvaccinated girls.
The study is part of the national surveillance of the HPV vaccination programme and includes data from more than 175,000 girls in the first six birth cohorts who were offered the vaccine in 7th grade. 145,000 of these received one or more doses of HPV vaccine.
Information about CFS / ME and other diagnoses from the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR) was linked with information about HPV vaccination from the Norwegian Immunisation Registry (SYSVAK).
The study has adjusted for factors that may affect the association between vaccination and CFS / ME, such as region of residence, country background, parental education and previous hospital visits among the girls.
Results of the study
- Girls who have received one or more doses of HPV vaccine have no greater risk of CFS / ME than girls who have not received HPV vaccine.
- The study also shows that the number of CFS / ME cases in Norway has increased in the period 2009-2014. The data for this part of the study includes all Norwegian children and adolescents, aged 10-17 years, during the study period, in total more than 800,000 persons. About two thirds (67 per cent) of those diagnosed are girls. However, the increase is similar in both sexes, although girls are more frequently diagnosed than boys. The reason for the increase is unknown.
The study is published in Vaccine:
Feiring B, Laake I, Bakken IJ, Greve-Isdahl M, Bruun Wyller V, Håberg S et al.
HPV vaccination and risk of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis: A nationwide register-based study from Norway. Vaccine 2017;35:4203-4212.
