Purpose: Nitazoxanide was recently reported as having in vitro effectiveness against the rubella virus. Immunodeficiency-related vaccine-derived rubella occurs in some patients who have an inherited immunodeficiency and who received the MMR vaccine. This study investigated the in vivo effectiveness of nitazoxanide therapy.
Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of seven patients treated with nitazoxanide as salvage therapy for immunodeficiency-related vaccine-derived rubella infection. The patients were recruited from an ongoing rubella detection surveillance project.
Results: Seven patients with persistent rubella were treated with nitazoxanide and one demonstrated significant clinical improvement. Two additional patients exhibited diminished viral capsid production with one patient having transient slowing of progression. The cohort overall generally had low T cell counts and had a high burden of comorbidities. There were three deaths. Two deaths were from PML and one was related to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Conclusions: Nitazoxanide has limited in vivo anti-viral effects for immunodeficiency-related vaccine-derived rubella. Most patients did not exhibit clinical improvement.
Keywords: Granulomas; MMR; chronic inflammation; nitazoxanide; vaccine.