Good afternoon PMR sufferers and prednisone users. (It’s afternoon here in Arizona). I am planning a trip in the near future which requires a malaria vaccine and recommends a yellow fever vaccination.
Are there any any problems for me with these shots as a PMR patient who is taking prednisone (currently 10.0mg per day)?
It is a live attenuated vaccine - and they are usually not recommended for patients on immunosuppressants.
Some are regarded as OK for patients on low doses, defined usually as under 10mg, but it does vary from vaccine to vaccine.
This is a realtively small study that suggests there isn't a problem:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/acr.22021
But you will have to check with experts - and that doesn't mean your GP! An infectious diseases hospital/centre would be better.
Hi Richard
l have read that the yellow fever vaccination is ‘live’ and therefore should not be given to immunocompromised persons.
://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/hcpinfo/guidelines/chapter3.pdf
I just re-read my travel documents and now understand more clearly what is needed. A yellow fever vaccine is required and malaria prophylaxis is recommended. I guess the malaria calls for preventive medication, not a vaccination.
Whatever, Eileen, your recommendation, as always, is a good one that I take seriously. My next task is to find an infectious disease center. I don’t imagine they would be in the telephone book under “Infectious Disease Centers.”
They might be in google under infectious disease centres
That's how I found the big one in London - working on the basis, if they didn't know, no-one would...
Someone has just asked a similar question over on the HU forum. She contacted her rheumatologist, Dr Rod Hughes (who most of us think is the bees knees) and he says yellow fever and pred are fine. So is malaria prophylaxis - which it should be as they use an old antimalarial drug as a so-called steroid sparer sometimes.
Just the fact that I am on a powerful immunosuppressant drug while being told by the travel company that I must have a live yellow fever virus injection, makes the whole thing a little dodgy in my opinion. I’m not emotionally committed to this trip to the tropics, and, discretion being the better part of valor, I am going to cancel it. (Don’t let my travel agent know, I haven’t told her yet.)
Shame, but they do say discretion is the better part of valour!!! Patience...