Allergies and COVID-19 vaccines: An ENDA/EAACI Position paper

Annick Barbaud 1Lene Heise Garvey 2 3Alessandra Arcolaci 4Knut Brockow 5Francesca Mori 6Cristobalina Mayorga 7Patrizia Bonadonna 8Marina Atanaskovic-Markovic 9Luis Moral 10Giovanna Zanoni 11Mauro Pagani 12Angèle Soria 13Maja Jošt 14Jean-Christoph Caubet 15Abreu Carmo 16Al-Ahmad Mona 17Alberto Alvarez-Perea 18Sevim Bavbek 19Biagioni Benedetta 20M Beatrice Bilo 21 22Natalia Blanca-López 23Herrera Gádor Bogas 24Alessandro Buonomo 25Gianfranco Calogiuri 26Giulia Carli 27Josefina Cernadas 28Gabriele Cortellini 29Gülfem Celik 30Semra Demir 31Inmaculada Doña 32Adile Berna Dursun 33Bernadette Eberlein 34Emilia Faria 35Bryan Fernandes 36Tomaz Garcez 37Ignacio Garcia-Nunez 38Radoslaw Gawlik 39Asli Gelincik 31Eva Gomes 40Jimmy H C Gooi 41Martine Grosber 42Theo Gülen 43Florence Hacard 44Cyrille Hoarau 45Christer Janson 46Sebastian L Johnston 47Lukas Joerg 48Seçil Kepil Özdemir 49Ludger Klimek 50Mitja Košnik 51Marek L Kowalski 52Semanur Kuyucu 53Violeta Kvedariene 54Jose Julio Laguna 55Carla Lombardo 56Susana Marinho 57Hans Merk 58Elisa Meucci 59Martine Morisset 60Rosa Munoz-Cano 61Francesco Murzilli 62Alla Nakonechna 63Florin-Dan Popescu 64Grzegorz Porebski 65Anna Radice 59Frederico S Regateiro 35 66 67Heike Röckmann 68Antonino Romano 69Ravishankar Sargur 70Joaquin Sastre 71Kathrin Scherer Hofmeier 72Lenka Sedláčková 73Marta Sobotkova 74Ingrid Terreehorst 75Regina Treudler 76Jolanta Walusiak-Skorupa 77Bettina Wedi 78Stefan Wöhrl 79Mihael Zidarn 80Torsten Zuberbier 81Ioana Agache 82Maria J Torres 

Affiliations

02 February 2022

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doi: 10.1111/all.15241


Abstract

Background: Anaphylaxis, which is rare, has been reported after COVID-19 vaccination, but its management is not standardized.

Method: Members of the European Network for Drug Allergy and the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology interested in drug allergy participated in an online questionnaire on pre-vaccination screening and management of allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines, and literature was analysed.

Results: No death due to anaphylaxis to COVID-19 vaccines has been confirmed in scientific literature. Potential allergens, polyethylene glycol (PEG), polysorbate and tromethamine are excipients. The authors propose allergy evaluation of persons with the following histories: 1-anaphylaxis to injectable drug or vaccine containing PEG or derivatives; 2-anaphylaxis to oral/topical PEG containing products; 3-recurrent anaphylaxis of unknown cause; 4-suspected or confirmed allergy to any mRNA vaccine; and 5-confirmed allergy to PEG or derivatives. We recommend a prick-to-prick skin test with the left-over solution in the suspected vaccine vial to avoid waste. Prick test panel should include PEG 4000 or 3500, PEG 2000 and polysorbate 80. The value of in vitro test is arguable.

Conclusions: These recommendations will lead to a better knowledge of the management and mechanisms involved in anaphylaxis to COVID-19 vaccines and enable more people with history of allergy to be vaccinated.

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccine; allergy test; anaphylaxis; mRNA vaccines; risk assessment.


References

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/