Monitoring and Vaccinations Research for Inflammatory Conditions (MAVRIC)

This webpage is for you to be able to download posters, lay summaries, and find links to YouTube videos about MAVRIC.

We are very happy for you to use the posters, lay summaries, and the video links in your clinic, website, social media, and on your website. Please do not modify them. We have developed them with patient input, and they reflect research led from the University of Nottingham by Professor Abhishek Abhishek and his team.

Vaccination

Why are vaccines important for people with inflammatory conditions?

People with inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis (with or without arthritis), inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), ankylosing spondylitis, and lupus are at increased risk of severe illness from infections such as pneumonia, flu (influenza), and Covid-19. This heightened risk is largely due to the medications used to treat these conditions. Common treatments like steroids, biologics, and methotrexate can suppress the immune system, making it less able to defend against infections.

Vaccines play a crucial role in boosting the body's defences against these infections. Vaccines such as the pneumococcal vaccine (also known as the pneumonia jab), the influenza vaccine (the flu jab), and the Covid-19 vaccine are designed to prevent serious, life-threatening complications from these illnesses. For individuals with inflammatory conditions, these vaccines can provide important protection.

Here we share findings of studies conducted at the University of Nottingham that explored pneumonia, flu and Covid-19 vaccinations in people with inflammatory conditions including people with rheumatoid arthritis. The Nottingham studies were funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) and Versus Arthritis. 

If you would like to contact us about this research, please email MAVRIC@nottingham.ac.uk. If you would like the videos by email for use on your websites, please let us know.

Please also see our website for further information.

Resources

Safety, uptake and effectiveness of vaccination against respiratory infections

Download poster [PDF]

Download lay summary [PDF]

The below videos describe safety, effectiveness and uptake of vaccination in English and different languages. Using the links below, you can watch and download the videos from MediaSpace.

Optimising vaccine response (VROOM study)

Download poster [PDF]

Download lay summary [PDF]

The below videos describe the VROOM study in English and different languages. Using the links below, you can watch and download the videos from MediaSpace.

Where can I find the results in full?

Inflammatory conditions and pneumonia vaccination

Georgina Nakafero, Matthew J Grainge, Tim Card, Christian D Mallen, Jonathan S Nguyen Van-Tam, Abhishek Abhishek, Uptake and safety of pneumococcal vaccination in adults with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: a UK wide observational study, Rheumatology, 2024; keae160, https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keae160
Effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccination in adults with common immune-mediated inflammatory diseases in the UK: a case–control study, Nakafero, Georgina et al. The Lancet Rheumatology, Volume 6, Issue 9, e615 - e624

Inflammatory conditions and the influenza vaccination

Nakafero G, Grainge MJ, Myles PR, Mallen CD, Zhang W, Doherty M, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Abhishek A. Predictors and temporal trend of flu vaccination in auto-immune rheumatic diseases in the UK: a nationwide prospective cohort study. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2018 Oct 1;57(10):1726-1734. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/key156. PMID: 29901743; PMCID: PMC6152422.
Nakafero G, Grainge MJ, Myles PR, Mallen CD, Zhang W, Doherty M, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Abhishek A. Effectiveness of inactivated influenza vaccine in autoimmune rheumatic diseases treated with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2020 Dec 1;59(12):3666-3675. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keaa078. PMID: 32160295; PMCID: PMC7733714.
Nakafero G, Grainge MJ, Myles PR, Mallen CD, Zhang W, Doherty M, Nguyen-Van-Tam JS, Abhishek A. Association between inactivated influenza vaccine and primary care consultations for autoimmune rheumatic disease flares: a self-controlled case series study using data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. Ann Rheum Dis. 2019 Aug;78(8):1122-1126. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2019-215086. Epub 2019 Apr 29. PMID: 31036623; PMCID: PMC6691866.

Inflammatory conditions and vaccination against Covid-19

Nakafero G, Grainge MJ, Card T, Mallen CD, Nguyen Van-Tam JS, Williams HC, Abhishek A. Is vaccination against Covid-19 associated with autoimmune rheumatic disease flare? A self-controlled case series analysis. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2023 Apr 3;62(4):1445-1450. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac484. PMID: 36048896; PMCID: PMC10070057.
 Card, Timothy R. BSc, MBChB, MSc, PhD, FRCP1,2,*; Nakafero, Georgina BSc, PhD3,*; Grainge, Matthew J. BSc, MSc, PhD1; Mallen, Christian D. BMBS, PhD4; Van-Tam, Jonathan S. Nguyen FFPH, DM1; Williams, Hywel C. MSc, PhD, FRCP1; Abhishek, Abhishek MBBS, MD, FRCP, PhD3. Is Vaccination Against Covid-19 Associated With Inflammatory Bowel Disease Flare? Self-Controlled Case Series Analysis Using the UK CPRD. The American Journal of Gastroenterology 118(8):p 1388-1394, August 2023. | DOI: 10.14309/ajg.0000000000002205
Laura Adams, Georgina Nakafero, Matthew J Grainge, Tim Card, Christian D Mallen, Jonathan S Nguyen Van-Tam, Hywel C Williams, Abhishek Abhishek, Is vaccination against Covid-19 associated with psoriasis or eczema flare? Self-controlled case series analysis using data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (Aurum), British Journal of Dermatology, Volume 188, Issue 2, February 2023, Pages 297–299, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjd/ljac061

VROOM study

Effect of a two-week interruption in methotrexate treatment on Covid-19 vaccine response in people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (VROOM study): a randomised, open label, superiority trial Abhishek, Abhishek Pande, Ira et al. The Lancet Rheumatology, Volume 6, Issue 2, e92 - e104