Trumm Drug

Zostavax®; A new preventative vaccine against shingles.

Shingles is a painful disease that affects nearly 1 million people in the United States each year. This disease is caused by the virus, varicella zoster, the same virus that causes the chickenpox. Anyone who has had the chickenpox at some point in their lifetime is at risk of developing shingles, however as you age your risk becomes greater. It is believed that adults who are 50 years old or older are naturally at a greater risk. It has also been found that those individuals with weakened immune systems as a result of disease or medications, are also at a greater risk. Overall, an individuals’ lifetime risk of developing shingles is around 32%. Usually shingles only occurs once in a lifetime if it occurs at all.

A person develops shingles when the varicella zoster virus becomes reactivated in the body. After the chickenpox, the virus becomes dormant but still lives in the body. Upon reactivation, the virus travels through the nerves of the body out to the skin, causing an extreme inflammatory pain of the nerves and a blistering type rash. People who develop shingles initially show signs of a rash that starts on one side of the face or body. The blisters eventually scab over but can last a total of 2-4 weeks. The extreme pain that goes along with having shingles can last even after the rash has seemed to disappear. Some patients have residual pain for years following a case of shingles.

Other facts surrounding shingles are that the disease cannot be passed on from one person to another. However, a patient with shingles can give somebody the chickenpox if they have never had the chickenpox before, simply because the same virus is involved. Secondly, if a person is vaccinated with the new chickenpox vaccine (Varivax®), they could still develop shingles later on in life. However, their risk is lower than someone who actually had the chickenpox as a result of the wild virus.

As of May 25, 2006 a vaccine known as Zostavax® was approved with the indication for the prevention of shingles in people who are 60 years old or older. This vaccine is a one time injection given subcutaneously in the upper arm. Clinical studies have found the vaccine to decrease the risk of developing shingles by 50%. Studies have also found the vaccine to decrease the duration of extreme pain in those patients who develop shingles despite receiving the vaccine. Side effects of this vaccine that have been noted are redness, soreness, itching, tenderness, and swelling at the injection site, nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to receiving any type of injection or vaccination. This vaccine is not recommended in patients who have weakened immune systems, patients with cancer, patients who are pregnant or intend to become pregnant, or patients with tuberculosis. This vaccine is currently covered through Medicare Part D programs for patients >65 years of age, and is a fairly new preventative measure that can be taken to decrease the chances of developing this painful and uncomfortable disease.

Resource: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Vaccines & Immunizations. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov.

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