Live Vaccines; Live BCG/Hydroxyurea Interactions
This information is generalized and not intended as specific medical advice. Consult your healthcare professional before taking or discontinuing any drug or commencing any course of treatment.
Medical warning:
Serious. These medicines may interact and cause very harmful effects. Contact your healthcare professional (e.g. doctor or pharmacist) for more information.
How the interaction occurs:
Hydroxyurea may prevent your body from responding correctly to the vaccine or to your BCG medicine for bladder cancer.
What might happen:
If you are receiving immunosuppressant medicine, you may not develop disease immunity from the vaccination and/or the live vaccine may cause you to develop the illness it was supposed to prevent. However, an inactive vaccine cannot cause you to develop the illness it was supposed to prevent, even if you receive immunosuppressant medicine.If you are receiving an immunosuppressant medicine when you receive your BCG bladder treatment it may not work as well, and/or you could get a severe infection if the BCG medicine gets into your blood stream.
What you should do about this interaction:
Before receiving a vaccination with a live vaccine, or BCG medicine for bladder cancer, let your doctor know all of the other medicines you are taking, especially if your medications work by suppressing the immune system (e.g. transplant medicines)or if you have recently received radiation or chemotherapy for cancer. Your doctor may decide to give you an inactive vaccine, may want to change the timing of your vaccination or may want to change when you receive your BCG cancer medicine.Your healthcare professionals may already be aware of this interaction and may be monitoring you for it. Do not start, stop, or change the dosage of any medicine before checking with them first.
- 1.Hydrea (hydroxyurea) US prescribing information. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company November, 2023.
- 2.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. General Recommendations on Immunization. Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). MMWR. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/general-recs/index.html February 17, 2022;60(RR No.
- 3):1-68.
- 4.TICE BCG (BCG live, for intravesical use) prescribing information. Organon USA Inc. October, 2010.
- 5.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. General Best Practice Guidelines for Immunization: Altered Immunocompetence. ACIP Vaccine Recommendations and Guidelines. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/general-recs/immunocompetence.h tml. Accessed December 2020.;119-145.
- 6.Lederman HM, Connolly MA, Kalpatthi R, Ware RE, Wang WC, Luchtman-Jones L, Waclawiw M, Goldsmith JC, Swift A, Casella JF. Immunologic effects of hydroxyurea in sickle cell anemia. Pediatrics. 2014 Oct;134(4):686-695.
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CONDITIONS OF USE: The information in this database is intended to supplement, not substitute for, the expertise and judgment of healthcare professionals. The information is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, drug interactions or adverse effects, nor should it be construed to indicate that use of a particular drug is safe, appropriate or effective for you or anyone else. A healthcare professional should be consulted before taking any drug, changing any diet or commencing or discontinuing any course of treatment.