A recent study published in the journal Rheumatology found six women out of 491 patients who developed a skin rash known as herpes zoster (HZ) infection — or shingles — within three to 14 days of receiving either the first or second dose of the Pfizer’s COVID vaccine.
Researchers from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Carmel Medical Center in Haifa also found the risk of developing HZ infection following a COVID vaccine increases among people with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases, Jerusalem Post reported.
Out of 491 patients, six people — or 1.2% — experienced the infection, researchers said. Five of them developed the shingles infection after the first dose and one after the second.
Shingles occurs when the varicella zoster virus, which causes chickenpox, is reactivated after lying dormant in the cranial and spinal nerves in the body. It then travels along affected nerves to the area of the skin served by those nerves, where it causes a distinctive, stripe-like rash on one sideof the face or body.
Shingles is a painful and itchy condition consisting of blisters that scab over in seven to 10 days and take two to four weeks to fully resolve. The most common complication is postherpetic neuralgia — severe and debilitating nerve pain that can take months or years to clear up, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Read more: Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine May Trigger Herpes Virus That Causes Shingles, Study Says
