Study finds no pattern of MIS-A after COVID-19 vaccination
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Researchers found no pattern of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults following COVID-19 vaccination without previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
SARS-CoV-2 infection can trigger multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults (MIS-A) and a similar serious illness in children, MIS-C, days or weeks after a person is sick, causing symptoms in different parts of the body.
In the new study, Ermias D. Belay MD, a member of the CDC’s COVID-19 response team, and colleagues explained that “MIS-A was included in the list of adverse events to be monitored as part of the emergency use authorizations issued for COVID-19 vaccines.”
“The study was initiated to follow cases of people with suspected multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults after COVID-19 vaccination became available to learn more about MIS-A, as well as to consider and determine whether COVID-19 vaccination impacted MIS-A,” a CDC spokesperson told Healio.
For the study, Belay and colleagues assessed reports of patients with MIS-A received by the CDC after COVID-19 vaccines became available between Dec. 14, 2020, and April 30, 2021.
The assessment uncovered 20 patients who met the case definition for MIS-A, including 16 (80%) who had a preceding COVID-19-like illness a median of 26 days before MIS-A onset. All 20 patients had laboratory evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Among the 20 patients, seven (35%) had received a COVID-19 vaccine a median of 10 days before MIS-A onset and three had received a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine 4, 17, and 22 days before MIS-A onset.
“Although seven patients were reported to have received COVID-19 vaccine, all had evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection,” Belay and colleagues wrote. “Given the widespread use of COVID-19 vaccines, the lack of reporting of MIS-A associated with vaccination alone, without evidence of underlying SARS-CoV-2 infection, is reassuring.”
The CDC spokesperson told Healio that, because the illness is serious and difficult to recognize, “clinicians and health department officials should be familiar with the MIS-A case definition and ensure suspected cases are reported.”
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