Hi, I’m going on holiday in a few weeks and I’ve been advised to get 3 vaccines.
I’m currently on ocrelizumab and was hoping someone could advise me if the vaccines will work.
This is from the professor of neurology at Barts.
Vaccination
It is recommended that anti-CD20 treated patients are immune to the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) before starting treatment. Patients should also be offered the pneumococcal (Pneumovax) and VZV (Shingrex) component vaccines to boost immunity before treatment. Antibody response to neoantigens (new vaccines) is blunted in patients on anti-CD20 vaccines, not T-cell responses. Therefore, patients on anti-CD20 therapies can have inactivated vaccines and mount a partial response to the vaccine. Live attenuated vaccines are not recommended to patients on anti-CD20 therapies.
Travel
People with MS need to be aware that being on an anti-CD20 may affect travel; for example, some countries require you to be vaccinated against yellow fever, which is a live attenuated vaccine. Therefore, the yellow fever vaccine must be given before starting anti-CD20.