NEW ORLEANS— A study from the American Society for Microbiology conducted a study with mice, using pain-reliving medicine. The findings revealed that some over the counter painkillers might reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.
The Director of the New Orleans Health Department, Dr. Jennifer Avegno says, “the truth is we don’t know how NSAIDS work. NSAIDS are drugs like Ibuprofen and Motrin. We don’t know how they will interact with your body when you receive a vaccine. There’s a theory that it blunts your immune system from having that initial response.”
Vaccines are designed to induce an immune response in the body by familiarizing it with a protein that is the same one in the makeup of the virus. However, there the immune system is complex and there is still research to be done.
Dr. Jeffrey Elder is an emergency medicine physician for LCMC and says “NSAIDS or anti-inflammatory drugs could really reduce the immune response that we want to see when somebody is vaccinated.”
Despite the research and it’s findings, it does not necessarily show pain relief medicine in a bad light, when it comes to vaccine effectiveness.
Dr. Avegno says, “remember these drugs don’t last very long. There’s a reason you take them every eight hours. Certainly there is no reason to suspect it may inactivate the vaccine. We want you to take something if you don’t feel well. These drugs are perfectly safe. There’s no evidence that after you’ve gotten the shot, you can’t take these medications to help with the mild side affects that you feel.”
“If you are vaccinated and you are having some of these symptoms like the body aches and low grade fever that is normal. It just means the body is revving up the immune system to fight. There is not evidence that these drugs will affect vaccine in humans,” says Dr. Elder.