Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis after mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine

Abstract

During one of the worst global health crises, millions of people were vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. In rare cases, new onset systemic inflammatory diseases were reported with temporal coincidence to the vaccination. We describe a case of severe Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis (EGPA) in a young asthmatic woman, occurring after a second dose of the mRNA-1273 vaccine. She presented with multisystem EGPA with cardiac and central nervous system involvement, complicated by secondary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). We review the reported cases of EGPA coinciding with SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination. All potentially vaccine-related EGPA cases reported so far occurred within 14 days from immunization. EGPA is very rare with an incidence of 1:1,000,000 inhabitants, and the number of reported post-vaccination EGPA cases lies within the expected incidence rate for the period. While we cannot prove a causal relationship between the vaccine and EGPA onset, the temporal relationship with the vaccine immune stimulation is intriguing, in a disease occurring almost always in adults with asthma and/or chronic rhinosinusitis and driven by an aberrant Th2 lymphocyte activation with hypereosinophilia; nevertheless, cases of inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) emerging in the context of vaccination remain rare and the benefits of preventing severe COVID presentations with SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines remain unquestionable.

Keywords

• eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis
• SARS-CoV-2
• mRNA vaccine
• immune thrombocytopenia