Does Anti–Tumor Necrosis Factor Therapy Elevate Herpes Zoster Risk?

For patients with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis, anti-TNF therapy poses no excess risk for HZ.

Herpes zoster (HZ) incidence increases with age and degree of immunocompromise; risk in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is elevated two- to threefold over that in the general population. Whether this excess risk in RA patients is related to the disease or to use of immunosuppressive treatments is unclear. To investigate, researchers used four large databases to compare HZ incidence in 33,000 new users of anti–tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapies (for RA, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, and related diseases) and 26,000 patients with the same diseases who began taking nonbiologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs).

The adjusted incidence rates within each disease category and across all disease categories were simil…

Reviewing Author

Thomas L. Schwenk, MD

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Thomas L. Schwenk, MD

Disclosures

Editorial BoardsUpToDate

Does Anti–Tumor Necrosis Factor Therapy Elevate Herpes Zoster Risk?

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Reviewing Author