Routine vaccinations do not increase the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis indicates a study of more than 4,000 adults, published online in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases.
Routine jabs for conditions such as flu and tetanus are often blamed for priming the body's immune system to turn on itself and trigger the development of long term inflammatory conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
The Swedish researchers base their findings on 2,000 people aged between 18 and 70, all of whom had confirmed rheumatoid arthritis, and more than 2,000 randomly selected healthy people matched for age, sex, and locality.
The team looked at the vaccination histories of all the participants to see if there were any differences between those receiving routine jabs within five years of the appearance of RA symptoms and those who did not develop the condition.
The specific vaccinations included in the study were those for flu; tetanus; diphtheria; tick borne encephalitis; hepatitis A, B, and C; polio; and pneumococcus.
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