Even Healthy Adults Can Get Shingles

Should you, or your loved one, get the vaccination that can help prevent shingles? Originally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2006, many physicians question whether or not their older patients should receive this vaccination.

In a recent press release, researchers from Olmsted Medical Center in Rochester announced that shingles could cause more problems than most people, or their physicians, realize. Researchers wanted to obtain current data regarding shingles since the introduction of the vaccine.

Researchers discovered that even healthy adults can have more adverse effects from shingles than previously thought. This study discounted the belief that healthy people who do not have a weakened immune system can get shingles. It is now likely that more physicians will recommend that their patients get the shingles vaccination.

Unlike other diseases, shingles itself is not life threatening. However, this should not be mistaken for thinking that it's no big deal - shingles can be extremely painful. It can cause complications that may last for weeks, months, or even years.

Shingles is usually recognized by the rash or blisters that it causes. These form on the skin, and the blisters can pop, causing a liquid to ooze out of them. Caused by a virus, shingles can last for weeks or months before the blisters and rash heal.

Researchers discovered that while nearly no one, 92 percent, who had participated in their study had any other life threatening illness that impacted their immune system, nearly 20 percent of the participants had skin pain that continued for more than 90 days. Indeed, this pain often continues for months, or years, after the shingles virus itself is gone.

"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. 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," said Barbara Yawn, M.D., of Olmsted Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota.

About shingles
Shingles typically affects people over the age of 60, who have had the chickenpox virus at some point in their life. The vaccination, Zostavax, is useful by preventing shingles in just over half, 61 percent, of the people who receive this vaccination.

People who have received the vaccine, but later develop shingles tend to have much less serious cases of shingles. These patients are also at a lower risk of having long-term pain, which is frequently associated with shingles.

Shingles is not contagious like a cold - you must actually have physical contact with the oozing liquids from the blisters to contract shingles from another person.

The report has been published in the journal, Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Sources:
http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/536205/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingles