Disseminated cutaneous herpes simplex infection after COVID-19 vaccination in a rheumatoid arthritis patient: a case report and review

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
Since COVID-19 vaccination started in December 2020, different side effects were reported. This case report describes the possibility of developing disseminated herpes simplex infection after COVID-19 vaccine in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis. In this case report, we describe a 63-year-old Iranian female. She was a known case of seronegative rheumatoid arthritis and presented with generalized papulo-pustular itchy and painful skin lesions which appeared about seven days after the second dose of Sinopharm BIBP COVID-19 vaccine (BIBP-CorV). A biopsy of the skin lesions revealed acantholysis, neutrophils, and enlarged keratinocytes with eosinophilic intra-nuclear inclusions. Findings were consistent with herpes simplex infection. She was successfully treated by acyclovir. Disseminated cutaneous herpes simplex infection may have been triggered by COVID-19 vaccination. Reactivation of herpes virus after COVID-19 vaccines was reported in both rheumatic patients and other individuals. Whether having an underlying autoimmune inflammatory disorder could be an additional risk factor is still unknown.
How to Cite

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.