Increased Risk of Herpes Zoster in Adults ≥50 Years Old Diagnosed With COVID-19 in the United States | Zendy

Amit Bhavsar | Zendy; Germain Lonnet | Zendy; Chengbin Wang | Zendy; Konstantina Chatzikonstantinidou | Zendy; Raunak Parikh | Zendy; Yves Brabant | Zendy; Nathalie Servotte | Zendy; Meng Shi | Zendy; Robyn Widenmaier | Zendy; Emmanuel Aris | Zendy

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Increased Risk of Herpes Zoster in Adults ≥50 Years Old Diagnosed With COVID-19 in the United States

Author(s) -

Amit Bhavsar,

Germain Lonnet,

Chengbin Wang,

Konstantina Chatzikonstantinidou,

Raunak Parikh,

Yves Brabant,

Nathalie Servotte,

Meng Shi,

Robyn Widenmaier,

Emmanuel Aris

Publication year - 2022

Publication title -

open forum infectious diseases

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 1.546

H-Index - 35

ISSN - 2328-8957

DOI - 10.1093/ofid/ofac118

Subject(s) - medicine , poisson regression , covid-19 , incidence (geometry) , retrospective cohort study , diagnosis code , cohort , cohort study , pediatrics , disease , population , infectious disease (medical specialty) , physics , environmental health , optics

Background Case reports have described herpes zoster (HZ) in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, this constitutes low-quality evidence for an association. We therefore performed a retrospective cohort study to assess the risk of developing HZ following a COVID-19 diagnosis. Methods We compared the HZ incidence in ≥50-year-olds diagnosed with COVID-19 vs those never diagnosed with COVID-19. We used data from the US MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters and Medicare Supplemental (3/2020–2/2021) and Optum Clinformatics Data Mart (3–12/2020) databases. Individuals with COVID-19 were exact-matched 1:4 to those without COVID-19 by age, sex, presence of HZ risk factors, and health care cost level. Adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRRs) were estimated by Poisson regression. Results A total of 394 677 individuals ≥50 years old with COVID-19 were matched with 1 577 346 individuals without COVID-19. Mean follow-up time after COVID-19 diagnosis and baseline characteristics were balanced between cohorts. Individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 had a 15% higher HZ risk than those without COVID-19 (aIRR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.07–1.24; P < .001). The increased HZ risk was more pronounced (21%) following COVID-19 hospitalization (aIRR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.03–1.41; P = .02). Conclusions We found that COVID-19 diagnosis in ≥50-year-olds was associated with a significantly increased risk of developing HZ, highlighting the relevance of maintaining HZ vaccination.

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