Question
I have RA/OA and have been on MTX and Enbrel for two + years. My white blood count tends to run low. Is there a problem with being around babie and children that have had Hepatitis B vaccinations and new baby vaccinations?
Answer
There should be no problem. Most vaccines including hepatitis B do not contain any live viruses. The only exception I can think of is the oral polio vaccine does contain a weak form of the live polio virus which is shed in the stool of babies after the vaccine is given. This should not be a problem if you have been vaccinated (virtually everyone in the US) for polio. To my knowledge, there has never been a reported case of a patient on Enbrel or other TNF inhibitor getting a disease from a vaccine, but we still caution our patients not to take live virus vaccines such as Flumist or the new shingles vaccine.
