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WEDNESDAY, July 10, 2019 (HealthDay News) — A two-dose course of recombinant zoster vaccine is associated with a reduction in the incidence of herpes zoster among adults who have undergone autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), according to a study published in the July 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Adriana Bastidas, M.D., from GlaxoSmithKline in Wavre, Belgium, and colleagues examined the efficacy and adverse event profile of recombinant zoster vaccine in immunocompromised autologous HSCT recipients in a phase 3 trial. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either two doses of recombinant zoster vaccine or placebo administered into the deltoid muscle (922 and 924 patients, respectively).<\/p>\n
The researchers found that at least one herpes zoster episode was confirmed in 49 vaccine recipients and 135 placebo recipients during the 21-month median follow-up (incidence, 30 and 94 per 1,000 person-years, respectively), for an incidence rate ratio (IRR) of 0.32, equivalent to vaccine efficacy of 68.2 percent. Significant reductions were seen in three of eight secondary end points: postherpetic neuralgia (IRR, 0.1), other prespecified herpes zoster-related complications (IRR, 0.22), and duration of severe worst herpes zoster-associated pain (hazard ratio, 0.62). Injection site reactions were recorded in 86 and 10 percent of vaccine and placebo recipients, respectively; pain occurred in 84 percent of vaccine recipients.<\/p>\n
“An advantage of the short two-dose posttransplantation schedule is that more patients might complete the vaccination program,” the authors write.<\/p>\n
Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, which funded the study.<\/p>\n
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