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Aplastic Anemia and vaccine influences

Blood Cancers & Disorders | Last Active: Apr 24, 2023 | Replies (24)

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@loribmt

Hello @aeft, Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I can appreciate your concern for having had a Matched Unrelated Donor (MUD) stem cell transplant and not wanting to take any chances with a relapse or recurrence of the original Aplastic Anemia, which you feel may have been caused by the covid vaccine.
There have been some cases reported where there has been a link between the vaccine and people developing Aplastic Anemia. It would be interesting to see the possible correlation between developing the disease within patients who have the Rag 1 mutation, if this was possibly a contributing factor.

You were very fortunate to have the bone marrow transplant which allows your body to get a fresh start with a new immune system. Your question about whether having the Rag 1 mutation will set you up for this to happen again, is really a complex question without a lot of research available to give you a definitive answer.

But nevertheless, whether or not to receive another mRNA delivered vaccine would be something to discuss with your transplant doctors. There is another vaccine on the market called Novavax which isn’t a mRNA product.

Have you discussed your research with the possible correlation of the Rag1 mutation and the vaccine with your doctor?

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Replies to "Hello @aeft, Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I can appreciate your concern for having had a..."

Thanks for reply. Yes I’m considering the Novavax. However my doctors don’t seem to share my vaccine concern. Transplant doctors do not have experience with the Rag1 mutation since it so rare.
There is also the question Of whether I still have the mutation post transplant. My recent Chimerism is 98%. I cannot see the hospital genetics doctor until November 2023. I am searching the literature for any reference to heterozygous Rag 1 mutation and stem cell transplant or vaccines and have found nothing yet. Any suggestions?

Hello. I have aplastic anemia post COVID vaccine. I was healthy before all this happened. I got my booster end of September 2021. Blood counts were down as of my blood work Jan 2022. It took awhile to diagnose. I had a bone marrow biopsy in feb 2022, came back fine. I was treated with prednisone which did nothing. I had another bone marrow biopsy in may which came back saying I had PNH. My doctor was not convinced this was the case. I went for a third opinion in august of 2022 and this doctor said I have aplastic anemia and it was evident back in may. I received my ATG treatment in sept 2022 and am on a treatment consisting of cyclosporine and promacta. I am currently 6 months transfusion free. My numbers are still improving and are much better than before. I am grateful for the excellent medical care I received from Rush university in Chicago IL. I was a healthy individual before I received the COVID vaccine, I was looking forward to turning 40 and all the new life experiences I was going to have and then this happened. I can say I’m doing much better and I’m so grateful. I believe this COVID vaccine has done more harm than good. I hope they can link this at some point . I have had a hard time getting people to believe me that this is what it’s from. No one can give me any answers. Like I said I was healthy before all of this took place. I’m just looking forward to some answers in the near future. I wish everyone who reads this who may have suffered like me be glad there is treatment and just hang in there and pray, lean on your family and you can get through anything.