A recent data review has demonstrated that the Shingles Vaccine can be safely given to patients with immune suppression (either from medications like steroids or from their underlying medical condition). This is good news and makes the data for the Shingles Vaccine more an more encouraging.
The Shingles Vaccine has been available for the past 4 years but has recently been offered on a more widespread basis as it has come into more regular production and availability.
It is recommended for people over 60 years of age who had had chicken pox previously and thus are at risk for Shingles (this is 99.7% of the population).
Recent studies, including this one, have shown the vaccine to be safe and effective:
1. As early as 50 years old
2. In immune suppressed patients
Shingles is recurrent chicken pox virus (herpes zoster) that causes infection in a nerve and develops into a painful rash on the skin. It only occurs in patients who have had chicken pox infection previously as a child.
There is a vaccine to prevent Shingles and it is 70+% effective.
If you’ve gotten your Shingles Vaccine yet, I recommend it highly.
Let’s make Shingles a disease of the past…..like we did for POLIO in the 50’s.