Vaccination, gout, . . . and other stories

Gout flares after vaccination

Safety data from trials of a recombinant herpes zoster vaccine flagged up an increase in risk of an acute attack of gout following the injection. This raised a question of whether it was a specific adverse effect of that particular vaccine or a previously unrecognised effect of vaccines generally. A case-crossover study in patients with gout from the US suggests that it’s the latter, with any sort of vaccination roughly doubling the chances of a gout flare (Ann Rheum Dis doi:10.1136/annrheumdis-2019-215724). Mind you, the absolute increase in risk is small and, set against the benefits of vaccinations, it will usually …