A Spectrum of Leprosy Reactions Triggered by Covid‐19 Vaccination: a Series of Four Cases

Dear Editor, The vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to expand across the globe. Concurrently, a large number of dermatological adverse effects related to vaccination are vigorously reported. A study conducted by Rerknimitr et al encompassing over 35 000 vaccine receiving healthcare workers stated the incidence of cutaneous adverse effects to be <1%. India launched its vaccination drive on 16 January 2021 and has vaccinated over 320 million individuals (23.4% of the total population) by July 2021. Amongst various vaccine-related adverse effects, leprosy reactions have sparse mention in the literature limited to mere case reports and case series. We report a series of four cases of Hansen’s disease with leprosy reactions spanning across the entire spectrum after being administered the vaccine from a leprosy care centre in India. Of the four cases included in the series, three were borderline tuberculoid (BT) leprosy while one was of borderline lepromatous (BL) pole of the Ridley–Jopling classification. Of the three BT leprosy cases, two were released from treatment (RFT) after completing 6 months and one year of MDT, respectively. Two kinds of vaccines were administered, covishield (Recombinant ChAdOx1-S) vaccine manufactured by the serum institute of