Hepatitis B vaccination has been associated with reactive arthritis and rarely rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
[F]irefighters who developed arthritis after… hepatitis B vaccination (5 subjects), as well as a second group of sporadic cases of arthritis (6 patients) after hepatitis B vaccination are described.
Ten of 11 patients fulfilled revised American College of Rheumatology criteria for RA. All cases had persistent arthritis for more than 6 months; at 48 months followup 2 cases no longer had inflammatory arthritis. Nine patients required disease modifying antirheumatic drugs.
Recombinant hepatitis B vaccine may trigger the development of RA in… genetically susceptible individuals.