Vaccines, Infections, and Alopecia Areata

    May 2015
    Yaron Zafrir, Sharon Baum, Nancy Agmon‐Levin, Yehuda Shoenfeld
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    TLDR Some vaccines, like the hepatitis B vaccine, might be linked to the hair loss condition Alopecia Areata, but more research is needed.
    The document from 2015 discussed Alopecia Areata (AA), an autoimmune condition causing hair loss, affecting over 5 million people in the U.S. It highlighted that AA could arise at any age and affects both sexes equally. The condition is linked to other autoimmune diseases and atopic features, with autoreactive lymphocytes attacking anagen hair follicles. Genetic predisposition and environmental factors, such as infections and vaccinations, are implicated in its pathogenesis. Specifically, the hepatitis B vaccine was mentioned as potentially inducing AA, with a study reporting 60 cases of alopecia post-vaccination. However, the evidence was not definitive, and the document called for more research to clarify the relationship between vaccines and AA, underlining the disease's adverse effect on patients' quality of life.
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