A Rare Adverse Effect of the COVID-19 Vaccine on Autoimmune Encephalitis

Ying-Fong Huang; Tzu-Chuan Ho; Chin-Chuan Chang; Daniel Hueng-Yuan Shen; Hung-Pin Chan; Kuo-Pin Chuang; Yu-Chang Tyan; Ming-Hui Yang

doi:10.3390/vaccines10071114

A Rare Adverse Effect of the COVID-19 Vaccine on Autoimmune Encephalitis

Vaccines (Basel). 2022 Jul 13;10(7):1114. doi: 10.3390/vaccines10071114.

Authors

Ying-Fong Huang^{1

2}, Tzu-Chuan Ho², Chin-Chuan Chang^{1

3

4

5}, Daniel Hueng-Yuan Shen⁶, Hung-Pin Chan⁶, Kuo-Pin Chuang⁷, Yu-Chang Tyan^{1

2

3

7

8

9

10

11}, Ming-Hui Yang^{12

13}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
² Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
³ School of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
⁴ Neuroscience Research Center, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Electrical Engineering, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung 840, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung 813, Taiwan.
⁷ Graduate Institute of Animal Vaccine Technology, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912, Taiwan.
⁸ Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
⁹ Department of Medical Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
¹⁰ Center for Cancer Research, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
¹¹ Research Center for Environmental Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan.
¹² Department of Medical Education and Research, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung 813, Taiwan.
¹³ Center of General Education, Shu-Zen Junior College of Medicine and Management, Kaohsiung 821, Taiwan.

Abstract

Since countries commenced COVID-19 vaccination around the world, many vaccine-related adverse effects have been reported. Among them, short-term memory loss with autoimmune encephalitis (AE) was reported as a rare adverse effect. Since case numbers are limited, this brief report may draw the attention of the medical community to this uncommon adverse effect and serve as a reference for future vaccine improvement. However, given the high risk of adverse outcomes when infected with SARS-CoV-2 and the clearly favorable safety/tolerability profile of existing vaccines, vaccination is still recommended.

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccine; adverse effect; autoimmune encephalitis; lymphocytic pleocytosis; short-term memory loss.

Abstract

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