Vaccination against HPV in women and girls diagnosed with at least one autoimmune disease does not increase the risk of developing an additional autoimmune disease, according to a study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.
The study involved more than 70,000 women and girls from Sweden, 16 percent of whom received at least one dose of the HPV vaccine between 2006 and 2012. All participants had been previously diagnosed with at least one autoimmune disease. Patient data indicated that vaccination was not linked to an increase risk of developing an additional autoimmune disease. In fact, those who were vaccinated were slightly less likely to develop an additional disease.
Senior author of the study, Lisen Arnheim Dahlström, senior researcher at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, pointed out that individuals with autoimmune disease are particularly vulnerable to diseases that are preventable with vaccination.
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