By Raghav Govindarajan, Neurologist and Conquer MG Medical Advisory Board Member
What is a vaccine?
Vaccination is a safe, and effective way of protecting you or your loved one against harmful diseases. It uses your body’s natural defenses to build resistance to specific infections and makes your immune system stronger.
How do vaccines work?
Vaccines train your immune system to create antibodies, just as it does when it’s exposed to a disease. However, because vaccines contain only killed or weakened forms of germs like viruses or bacteria, they do not cause the disease or put you at risk of its complications.
Do MG patients need to get vaccinated?
Getting vaccinated is an important aspect of MG care. With a weakened immune system, illnesses that other people can fight, like the flu, or pneumonia, can become life-threatening. Preventing sickness from happening in the first place through vaccination helps keep people with MG healthier overall. Further, preventing respiratory infections in people with generalized MG can reduce the risk of exacerbation.
Which vaccines are safe and recommended for MG patients?
Most vaccines are safe for people with myasthenia gravis. Age-appropriate vaccination is recommended for MG patients. These include TdaP (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis), HPV (human papillomavirus), Hepatitis B, inactivated varicella (chickenpox and shingles). In patients on complement inhibitors, meningococcal vaccine is also recommended. Also recommended are pneumonia vaccine along with inactivated flu and COVID vaccine for MG patients.
What vaccines to avoid with MG?
MG patients taking immunosuppressants should not be given live vaccines. This includes nasal flu spray, certain type of shingles vaccine, yellow fever vaccine, measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. However, non-live versions of the flu shot, and shingles vaccine are safe and recommended for people with MG.
Flu vaccine and MG-Is it safe?
Some people believe that the flu vaccine may cause flares or flu in people with MG. However, multiple studies have found the flu vaccine safe in people with mild to moderate MG. Flu vaccine is even safe in severe MG. There is a greater chance of having MG related complications from flu than the flu vaccine.
Can I get COVID vaccine if I have MG?
In patients with well-controlled myasthenia gravis (MG), the 2-dose mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be safe and well tolerated. These are the findings of a study published in the journal Muscle & Nerve. Clinical outcome scores demonstrated no exacerbation of symptoms of MG. Overall, COVID-19 vaccination did not induce clinical exacerbation in stable patients with MG, regardless of their age, sex, history of myasthenic crisis, or whether they were taking immunosuppressant.
