With all the publicity about the importance of COVID vaccines, and also the importance of getting the annual flu shot, we may be overlooking another vaccine that should urgently be on the to-do list of those over the age of 50.
As reported here, numerous doctors are strongly recommending the shingles vaccine.
From the article: “Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash, usually on one side of the body. The rash often looks like a stripe of fluid-filled blisters wrapped around a part of your body. It can also appear on the face or neck or around an eye. Before the rash appears, you might experience some pain, itching or tingling in the area where the rash will eventually develop. And the pain may linger after the rash clears up. For some people, the pain can linger indefinitely.”
The article quotes Dr. Tina Tan, an infectious disease expert and professor at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago: “It is not a benign illness. Most of the time it goes away over time, but there are some people who always have some element of it.”
The article also cites Dr. Linda Yancey, an infectious disease specialist at Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston: “Even uncomplicated shingles is very painful with a rash that can take weeks to resolve.”
Why are people over 50 particularly at risk?
Because they’re more likely to have had chicken pox. (The chicken pox vaccine didn’t become available until 1995.) The virus that causes chicken pox, varicella-zoster virus, lies dormant in your body after you’ve had chicken pox. It reactivates later, causing shingles.
“If you were born before 1980, you almost certainly had chicken pox, and many people who were born after that date did, too. Even if you don’t remember having chicken pox, there’s a good chance you had it,” according to Dr. Kenneth Koncilja, MD, a geriatrician and internal medicine physician with the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Geriatric Medicine.
Beyond the immediate pain, shingles can also produce other complications such as bacterial infections to the rash, or eye problems such as blurry vision, sensitivity to light or vision loss.
The shingles vaccine currently available is a two-dose vaccine called Shingrix. It’s only approved for adults 50 and older (although younger people with weakened immune systems may qualify).
After you receive the first shot, you need to wait two to six months for the second. But there’s no need for a booster after that. “It should be good for the rest of your life,” says Dr. Tan.
For more information about shingles and the vaccine, check here. Then talk to your physician.
We’ll leave the last word with Dr. Yancey: “If you are on the fence about getting the shingles vaccine, talk to a friend who has had a case of shingles. It causes a level of pain that most people are not expecting and that modern medicine doesn’t have very good treatments for. It is much better to prevent a case of shingles than to have to deal with the consequences of one.”