Introduction: An important but rare adverse effect of vaccines is their association with autoimmune events, including hepatitis and aplastic anemia (AA). In this paper, we report a case of hepatitis followed by AA that occurred after the COVID-19 vaccine was administered.
Case report: This paper focuses on a 30-year-old female who presented with acute hepatitis three weeks after receiving the second dose of the coronavirus Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. After an extensive diagnostic evaluation was conducted that did not discover a specific cause, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was suspected and the patient was treated with corticosteroids. One week after the onset of a liver disorder, the patient presented with gum bleeding and pancytopenia, and the diagnosis of AA was established via laboratory testing and bone marrow biopsy. After the diagnosis, the patient received immunosuppressive therapy using anti-lymphocyte serum (ATGAM) and CYCLOSPORINE A with progressive improvements in cytopenia. The important issue is whether AA is related to acute hepatitis or the coronavirus vaccine.
Conclusion: Clinicians should be aware of the risk of both the possibility of acute hepatitis, AA, or both after receiving the COVID-19 vaccination. It is very hard to distinguish the cause of AA between vaccine- and hepatitis-related AA. Predicting who develops hepatic or myelo-complications after vaccination is difficult.
Keywords: Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine; acute hepatitis; aplastic anemia.