Hives and flu shot

[Craig901]

I was recently diognosed with hives. I had symtoms the following day after recieving a flu shot. Do you think the flu shot caused the hives?

[gyps29]

Are you allergic to eggs?  People that are should not take the flu shot but surely they asked that of you before giving it.  If not that is unusual but can happen I guess.  Had you taken an aspirin or anything afterwards or the night before? eaten anything different?  With allergies to cause hives you really need to start backwards from the time you broke out to at least the day before or 2 days before and see what could have caused it.  
Hives is considered a severe reaction to a substance.

[Chris135]

Did you ever get any answers to your correlation?  The same thing happened to my son and we have been dealing with hives off and on since then?

[BhumikaMD]

Hi,

gyps is right - allergy to eggs can cause an allergy reaction - flu vaccine does have egg as one of the constituent.

You should try some OTC antihistamine medications and apply local calamine lotion and see if the lesions respond.

It would be advisable to consult an allergy specialist for your symptoms.

Let us know if you have any doubts.

Hope this helps.

Good luck.

[summerluvr]

i'm allergic to eggs and i broke out in hives  after getting the flu shot.. i also develped sinusitus and fluish symptoms.. but i heard this is normal reaction to flu shot, so i'm not sure if it was my allergies or not.  

[BhumikaMD]

Hi,

There is no normal reaction to the flu shots. A few patients have fever and even fewer have other symptoms as side effects.

So any hives, sinusitis , etc should be reviewed with your doctor to rule out an allergic reaction as the cause.

Hope this helps.

Regards.

[Craig901]

I posted a message back in early November.It is now 2/17/08 and I still have hives. I developed these symptoms the day after a flu shot. I've been to my primary doctor,a dermitologist and to a few allergist,within a group practice. I have been on predisone along with zertec and trimcinolone creme. I also took hydroxyzine in the evening. Later added was ranitidine for dual purpose. I have acid reflex. It became under control where I was just on zyzal. All prior treatment meds. were elliminated. I was going to be tested for allergies. One and one half days later it came right back. To complicate matters during the first week of starting treatment meds. again, I took feledine,an antiinflammatory for chronic back pain. I developed  a severe reaction. Currently I have been taking zyzal,ranitidine and predisone in the morning and then take predisone, raitidine, singular,hydroxyzine and allegra in the evening. I am growing more and more concerned. Is this ever going to pass?

I reviewed a reply asking if I had taken asprin or anything (feledene) within a few days prior to having the flu shot. I'm not sure,but could be a possibility. What are your thoughts? Is there a resolve to all this?

Sincerely,
Craig

[BhumikaMD]

Hi,

You need to reconsult with your allergy specialsit and talk to him/her about getting you off the medications gradually.

This would be done very slowly with the dose being decreased in a step by step way so as not to cause a flare up of your symptoms.

Let us know if you have any more doubts and also about what your specialist advises.

Regards.

[theirmum]

Seems the hives reaction following the flu shot is not uncommon.  try the cold and flu forum for more reports.
once triggered, it seems to be re-triggered.
Frustrating when there is so much denial from the medical groups.

[PlateletGal]

I just mentioned the other day in the fibro / CFS forum that I've had a flu shot once. Despite the fact that I was told that I could not get the flu from a flu shot... I did. Now I'm reading from physicians that you can have a reaction from the flu shot.

My thoughts are this : if you can get Guillain Barre Syndrome, a sometimes deadly autoimmune disease, after getting a flu shot.... then you can certainly get hives after getting a shot.

[lovelypriyanka]

After my flu shot my arm was swollen and sore  with small bumps and fever on the arm

[km1731]

I am a man in my late 30's and got a flu shot 3 weeks ago because my wife is pregnant.  I have had all of the same symptoms as you.

I developed itchy palms the day after a flu shot. They progressed to hives from head to abdomen.  My original doc thought it was herpes.  Nice.  Got all of the pertinent tests and everything came back normal.   Since, I've been to my a dermitologist and she's related it directly to the shot. I have been on 40mg predisone, a prednisone shot along with zertec, zyzal and trimcinolone creme.  They come back in full force every two days or so in the middle of the night.  I was about to go to an autoimmune doctor and allergist.  Now seeing this, I know I'm not crazy.  But...the other possible complications do worry me.   Thanks for posting.

[hylagirl]

Craig, I ended up with hives after my flu shot first week of October. The problem is regardless of what causes the hives, it is exteremely difficult to get rid of them. I joined a hive selfhelp group and it is pretty scary to see the number of people who has had to "live" with hives for years. UGH! Mine is calm right now, but it will break out again out of the blue. Nothing doctors or allergist can do for you except pump you up with drugs.
I am currently using Clobex ($300 for 2oz) and Nistarix solution ($75. ) it heals the skin from the harsh Clobex. Histarix ts suppose to eleviate the hives but it doesn't, but it is soothing. Unfortunately I don't have good news for you.

[Lee1306]

I know this is almost a year since your post here but I began having chronic uticaria, hives that
come and go every six months and last for weeks.  I went to different doctors and no one can say
what causes them.  Prednisone does take them away for a short while but in about 2 months
they come back worse then ever.  This has been going on for about 8 years and that's about as
long as I've been getting flu shots.  I'm not going to get a flu shot this year and see what happens.  I did find out that cider vinegar taken internally by pill or liquid vinegar helps to control them along with a cream
called Clotrimazole & Behamethasone Dipropionate.  I put the cream on at night and cover the
spots with saran wrap and they usually go away in a couple of days.  If I don't do that they grow
larger and don't fade for a couple of weeks.  The flu shot is the only thing I can think of that could
be causing the hives.

[ohno812]

I was always hestitant to get the flu shot. This year I decided to get it due to the fact the my hospital employer were really preesing for everyone to get it and due to moving to the east coast in the middel of winter this year. I have hives!!! It has been 4 weeks that I received the injection.I've been breaking out 1-2 times a week with some scalp itching behind the base of my skull. Then last week I would wake up everyday with hives on the back of my thighs and they would go away by mid day. Today, It got really bad where I got a large lump/mass on my thighs and really itchy neck and scalp. I took 3 benadryls to control it. Good thing since last week I have already made a doctors appoitment for tomorrow. So what I am reading from the posting, it looks like I'm in for a cocktail of medications for months. I am not allergic to eggs. But I am allergic to chicken meat. But my reaction has never been hives but nausea & severe fatigue when I eat chicken meat. I read up on allergic reaction to flu shots. Some said to avoid the flu shot if you're allergic to eggs, chicken or chicken feathers. I've known about reaction if allergic to eggs (which I'm not), but chicken??? Gee thanks! a liitle late there. And I work in a hospital, and the consent form does not mention chicken, only egg allergies. I need to have them add this disclosure before more people get the shot.