Patients on immunosuppressive therapy should be offered annual influenza immunisation, and pneumococcal immunisation on one occasion.
There is no evidence to suggest that vaccinations could trigger new MS relapses, apart from Yellow fever vaccine which can increase the risk of MS relapse.
Live vaccines should NOT be given to patients on immunosuppressive drugs Copaxone and interferons are not considered to be immunosuppressive drugs.
Examples of live vaccines
- Some shingles vaccines
- Yellow fever
- MMR (measles, mumps, rubella)
- Some typhoid vaccines
- Flu vaccine nasal spray (usually given to children)
The flu jab, pneumonia and whooping cough vaccines are not live vaccines.
Your doctor or pharmacist can tell you if a vaccine is live or inactivated.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and its treatment with disease-modifying drugs (DMD) are not considered major risk factors for COVID-19 infection and its serious complications. The most important risk factors are those of age, ethnicity, high level of disability and other medical conditions. If you qualify for this you will be contacted for a booster.
Medication specific advice
We advise with KESIMPTA to have covid / flu jab in between your injections so at the 2 week point.
OCREVUS we advised to leave at least 14 days before treatment or 14 days after treatment
All other patients not on treatment and on other treatments can have at anytime.
