Naoyuki Hasegawa1, Ryota Matsuoka2, Naoki Ishikawa3, Masato Endo3, Masahiko Terasaki3, Emiko Seo3, Kiichiro Tsuchiya3. 1. Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8575, Japan. naoyuki-hasegawa@md.tsukuba.ac.jp. 2. Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8575, Japan. 3. Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8575, Japan.
We thank the authors for their important comments regarding recent our case report entitled “Autoimmune hepatitis with history of HCV treatment triggered by COVID‑19 vaccination: case report and literature review” [1]. In our case report, we suggested that history of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was one of the risk factors of autoimmune hepatitis triggered by Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) vaccination. Of course, our experience is only one case report, and we do not intend to deny COVID-19 vaccination to people with HCV infection. However, it is well known that autoimmune diseases are closely related to vaccine and infection diseases, including COVID-19 vaccination [2] and HCV infection [3]. Srikrishna V. Malayala et al. reported the patient of thrombocytopenia following COVID-19 vaccination with HCV infection [4]. Although COVID-19 vaccination is beneficial for the great majority of people, our case report suggests that physicians should pay attention to its adverse effect, such as autoimmune disease, especially in people with HCV infection.In the near feature, as Rujittika Mungmunpuntipantip et al. mentioned, to obtain more conclusive evidence on this topic, we have to gather pre-vaccination status and immunological health information on a national scale.