Reduce the risk
Vaccine lessens chance of shingles
Each year about a million people in the United States get shingles, that nasty, painful rash caused by the reactivation of leftover chicken pox virus that’s been hiding out in your body for decades. This year it might be a million and one because right across the hall, one of the women I work with is recovering from a case of shingles.
Ten years ago she won a million dollars in the lottery, but she didn’t feel very lucky recently when the pain and rash began. Ironically she had just turned 50 years old, the age at which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends we get Shringrix, a vaccine that dramatically reduces both the risk of getting shingles, and the risk of getting bad complications should you come down with shingles despite being vaccinated.
Earlier this year Dr. Jennifer Dillaha did a presentation at the Arkansas Department of Health on shingles. After she finished her talk, during which she strongly recommended the Shingrix vaccine, one of the other doctors stood up and described his past personal experience with shingles on his face. He said the nerve pain felt like being stabbed in his face several times a day, and it did not go away quickly. He too strongly recommended Shingrix.
In 2006, an older vaccine, Zostavax, came on the market. It helped, but the immunity did not last. As we get older our immune system does not work as well, and this aging process seems to erode the effectiveness of that vaccine much more quickly than is desirable. In October 2017, Shingrix was approved. It is a much better vaccine. If a person gets the recommended two doses separated by two to six months, it is better than 90 percent effective in preventing shingles. And for those who do get shingles despite having received Shingrix, the risk of getting that searing prolonged nerve pain called post-herpetic neuralgia is reduced by 90 percent. That is really good protection.
Because our risks of shingles and its complications increase as we get older, Shingrix is a godsend. For unvaccinated people over the age of 85 who get shingles, half of them get post-herpetic neuralgia. And that searing pain can last for weeks, months, and even years after the rash is completely healed. While the protection for an older person is not quite as good as for a 50-year-old, it is still very good.
Shingrix is strongly recommended for healthy adults over the age of 50. You should get the vaccination even if you had the old Zostavax vaccine, and you should get Shingrix even if you had shingles, once the rash has healed. Shingrix is safe, but in addition to local reactions like arm soreness or redness, about one in six people may have side effects like fatigue, fever, nausea or headache. These symptoms may make you want to curtail your normal activities for two or three days.
There is no way to predict if you are going to come down with shingles. Because most of us over the age of 40 had chicken pox, we are at risk. Shingrix dramatically reduces that risk.