Table 2. Medical history, course of illness and outcome of cases with skin manifestations after immunisation with an adjuvanted recombinant zoster vaccine, Germany, 2020 (n = 72).

Characteristics of cases	VZV-positive cases^a	VZV-negative cases^c	Total		p value
Characteristics of cases	n	n	n	%	p value
Number of cases	27	45	72		NA
Previous herpes zoster episodes
Number of responses	25	44	69		NA
At least one	5	17	22	31.9	0.110
1	4	9	13	18.8	NA
2–5	1	5	6	8.7
6–10	0	1	1	1.4
≥ 11	0	2	2	2.9
None	20^b	27	47^b	68.1
Immune defect or deficiency
Number of responses	25	43	68		NA
Yes	4	8	12	17.6	1.000
Vaccine dose
First	21^b	29	50^b	69.4	0.509
Second	6	16	22	30.6	0.509
Time to symptoms onset (days)
After any vaccine dose
0–7	20	28	48	66.7	0.302
8–28	7^b	17	24^b	33.3	0.302
After first vaccine dose
Number of responses	21	29	50		NA
0–7	15	16	31	62.0	NA
8–14	3^b	9	12^b	24.0
15–21	2	4	6	12.0
22–28	1	0	1	2.0
After second vaccine dose
Number of responses	6	16	22		NA
0–7	5	12	17		NA
8–14	1	2	3
15–21	0	0	0
22–28	0	2	2
Concomitant medication^d
Other vaccine	1	1	2	2.8	1.000^e
Immune suppressant or modulator	2	5	7	9.7	0.704^e
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory	6	11	17	23.6	0.830
Antiviral treatment
Yes	11	8	19	26.4	0.032
Complication
Number of responses	25	44	69		NA
Yes	6	4	10	14.5	0.152^e
Hospitalisation
Number of responses	26	44	70		NA
Yes	2	2	4	5.7	0.624^e
Outcome (on day of last reporting)
Number of responses	25	43	68		NA
Recovered or improved	16	42	58	85.3	< 0.001^e
Recovered	13^b	38	51^b	75.0	NA
Improved	3	4	7	10.3
Not recovered	7	1	8	11.8
Recovered with sequelae	2	0	2	2.9

HSV: herpes-simplex virus; NA: not applicable; VZV: varicella-zoster virus.

^a All VZV-positive samples were genotyped to wild-type VZV strains.

^b One patient sample was PCR positive for VZV and HSV-1.

^c Two VZV-negative samples were PCR positive for HSV-1 and five for HSV-2.

^d Multiple answers possible.

^e Fisher’s exact test.

Entries in bold represent statistically significant findings.

Percentages not included where n < 50.