Shingles virus and vaccination

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http://www.news-medical.net/?id=33479

Shingles virus and vaccination

Medical Studies/Trials

Published: Thursday, 13-Dec-2007

When a vaccine to prevent shingles was approved for use in 2006, the Food

and Drug Administration recommended the vaccine for people age 60 and older

who previously had chickenpox.

But two issues -- the vaccine's cost and the perception that shingles

primarily affects adults with weakened immune systems -- have left some

physicians undecided about whether healthy adults need the vaccine. This

uncertainty prompted a group of researchers led by Barbara Yawn, M.D., of

Olmsted Medical Center in Rochester, to gather new data about the incidence

and impact of shingles in unvaccinated patients.

Published in the November issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Dr. Yawn's

research findings suggest that shingles and the complications associated

with it may have a greater impact upon healthy adults than most physicians

previously assumed.

" The best way to make a decision about who we should vaccinate is by gaining

a better understanding about the true impact of this virus, " notes Dr. Yawn.

" Physicians have access to very few recent studies that tell us how many

people in the United States get shingles, what age groups the virus affects

most, and how many of these people go on to develop related complications or

other problems. "

Study rationale and findings

Shingles isn't a life-threatening condition, but it can cause a painful rash

or band of blisters during an outbreak and other painful complications that

can persist for months or even years. The goal of this study was to

establish accurate, up-to-date data about the incidence and impact of

shingles in the United States before the vaccine was introduced. Dr. Yawn

and her team recorded the number of adult residents of Olmsted County, Minn.

who were diagnosed with shingles and shingles-related complications from

Jan. 1, 1996, to Dec. 31, 2001. Over the course of the study, 1,669 patients

were included.

Researchers calculated that shingles affects at least 1 in every 278 adults

in the United States each year. Study data also showed that shingles is even

more common among people ages 50 to 59, affecting about one in every 24

people each year.

" Overall, our data suggests that researchers and physicians also need to

consider preventing shingles in people ages 50 to 59, " says Dr. Yawn.

Future research is needed to understand the risk of recurrence of shingles

to better advise people who previously had shingles about the value of

receiving the shingles vaccine. "

Dr. Yawn noted that study data also challenged the assumption that shingles

primarily affects adults with weakened immune systems.

" More than 92 percent of the study subjects with shingles did not have any

conditions like cancer or other serious illnesses that affected their immune

system, " says Dr. Yawn.

Post-herpetic neuralgia was the most common complication noted, occurring in

about 8 percent of all people and increasing with age. This sometimes

debilitating complication causes the skin to remain painful and sensitive to

touch for months or even years after the rash clears up.

" About 18 percent of people age 80 or older experience pain that lasts more

than 90 days beyond the shingles, " explains Dr. Yawn.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/