Neurological Complications of Vaccination with outer surface protein A (OspA)

Neurological complications of vaccination with outer surface protein A (OspA)

International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 89-96, 2011

https://content.iospress.com/articles/international-journal-of-risk-and-safety-in-medicine/jrs527

Authors: Marks, Donald H.

Affiliations: Department of Medicine, Cooper Green Mercy Hospital, Birmingham, AL, USA

Abstract:

A wide range of neurological complications have been reported via the medical literature and the VAERS system after vaccination with recombinant outer surface protein A (OspA) of Borrelia. To explore this issue, 24 patients reporting neurological adverse events (AE) after vaccination with Lymerix, out of a group of 94 patients reporting adverse events after Lymerix vaccination, were examined for causation. Five reports of cerebral ischemia, two transient Ischemic attacks, five demyelinating events, two optic neuritis, two reports of transverse myelitis, and one non-specific demyelinating condition are evaluated in this paper. Caution is raised on not actively looking for neurologic AE, and for not considering causation when the incidence rate is too low to raise a calculable difference to natural occurence.