Vaccine-associated pericarditis and myocarditis: 1967 - 2023

Lee, Jo et al.

Global estimates on the reports of vaccine-associated myocarditis and pericarditis from 1969 to 2023: Findings with critical reanalysis from the WHO pharmacovigilance database

Journal of Medical Virology

First published: 11 June 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.29693

Only an abstract available from this article

This study utilised the World Health Organization international pharmacovigilance database, from which records of vaccine-associated pericarditis and myocarditis between 1969 and 2023 were extracted. They identified 49,096 reports (30,013 were male) of vaccine-associated pericarditis and myocarditis among 73,590 reports of all-cause pericarditis and myocarditis.

"Concerning age and sex-specific risks, reports of vaccine-associated pericarditis and myocarditis were more prevalent among males and in older age groups. The age group between 12 and 17 years exhibited significant sex disproportion. Most of these adverse events had a short time to onset (median time: 1 day) and fatality rate was 0.44%. Our analysis of global data revealed an increase in pericarditis and myocarditis reports associated with vaccines, particularly live vaccines like smallpox and anthrax, notably in young males."

The reporting odds ratio (ROR) is a measure of the strength of disproportionality in data, and is used to make inferences about a general population from sample data. It can be used to identify weaknesses in spontaneous report data, and to reduce bias.