Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine may lead to a small increased risk of being hospitalised with herpes zoster, a study suggests.

Hong Kong researchers have identified 27 shingles-related admissions that occurred within 28 days of a Comirnaty first or second dose, from a total 2.5 million administered doses.

Their population-based study is the first to demonstrate a robust link between COVID-19 vaccination and zoster, they say.

The rate was about five times higher than expected, based on a self-controlled case series analysis and a nested case-control study, they wrote in The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific.