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  • Letters to the Editor
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No increase in demyelinating diseases after hepatitis B vaccination

Nature Medicine volume 5, pages 964–965 (1999)Cite this article

To the editor—Anecdotal reports on recombinant hepatitis B vaccination have suggested that the vaccine may give rise to demyelination in the central nervous system1. Some molecular features of both the virus and the vaccine could, theoretically, account for such adverse events2. We report here the first population-based controlled study on this question. Our results do not support the assumption that hepatitis B vaccination induces demyelination.

A retrospective cohort study was done on 134,698 individuals enrolled in a US healthcare database from 1988 to 1995. The database consists of integrated pharmacy and medical claims from six Diversified Pharmaceutical Services affiliated HMO plans, contracted to cover the economically active population and their dependants, with a total of 1.2 million insured lives. As it provides a geographically representative sample of the US population, Caucasians were over-represented. The database contains information on enrollment and all physician, hospital and pharmacy claims.

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References

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by grants from the Gemeinnützige Hertie-Stiftung, the Deutsche Multiple Sklerose-Gesellschaft and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (ZI 448/7-1). The authors thank Susan Letham for critical reading and Dr. Robert Nitsch for discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Charité, Berlin, 10098, Germany

    Frauke Zipp & Karl M. Einhäupl

  2. SmithKline Beecham Biologicals, 1330 Rixensart, Belgium

    John G. Weil

Authors
  1. Frauke Zipp
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  2. John G. Weil
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  3. Karl M. Einhäupl
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Correspondence to Frauke Zipp.

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Zipp, F., Weil, J. & Einhäupl, K. No increase in demyelinating diseases after hepatitis B vaccination. Nat Med 5, 964–965 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/12376

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