Thanks WhyNot! So then how is it different than just getting a booster shot of chicken pox vaccine?
Adults, particularly older ones, need a much higher dose of the stuff than children do to get a predictable and positive immune response. Zostavax has about 14 times the viral pockets that Varivax does.
http://www.immunize.org/askexperts/experts_zos.asp
(ProQuad is a combo MMR and varicella vaccine)
My 85-year-old mom got the shot earlier this year, no side effects. The whole hassle about the timing of the shot was a pain, until the pharmacy started giving them at the pharmacy, and Medicare paid. Originally we were supposed to pick up the vaccine at the pharmacy, drive it over to the doctor and he would give the shot.Which,since it takes my mom at least 20 minutes to walk from the car to the office,and then what if you have to wait in the waiting room? was impractical. So we decided I would drop her at the doctor’s, drive over to the pharmacy and pick it up and then zip back to the doctor.A pain. Thank goodness they changed to doing it at the pharmacy.
But then, when we got there, they couldn’t get an answer from her cancer doctor about whether she could have it at all…she got flagged when they put her in the computer. Shingles clinic is only once a week, so I’d have to take another day off work…sigh. But the nurse said she would stop by and give the shot at home as soon as they got the okay. Which was incredibly nice.
for all those of you who are under the misconception that the shingles virus is simply a rash and extreme pain…beware! two uncommon, yet entirely possible strains involve meningitis or encephalitis. my father (who was a healthy 85 year old 3 weeks ago) is now fighting to regain conciousness. he is being treated with an antiviral drug Acyclovir, but the prognosis isnt good…if he recovers at all, the brain damage he experienced through the “siezures” from the onset of the shingles encephalitus will have rendered him severely handicapt. Dont take this lightly, SHINGLES IS LIFE THREATENING…
Zombie thread aside, I nearly lost sight in one eye from shingles at 42. Hospitalization costs more than $240, and if you are considered a good candidate, you can now get the shot at 50. I will get it as soon as I’m old enough, as my father had it 3 times so far (always decades apart).
Concerned senior, I’m sorry for your bad news. I hope the best for your family.
In the Uk they’ll give the vaccine at 50 as well. Shingles ruined the last few years of my grandmother’s life, my mom has had it twice and my sister had it in her 20’s. I got so frustrated that my mom didn’t keep records…we had idea whether or not I ever even had the chicken pox as a kid so last week I had a blood test that confirmed I’d had them so given the family history, I’m definately getting it!
Just out of curiosity all you people talking about getting the shingles vaccine or chickenpox booster, did you all never have chicken pox?
Having chicken pox as a child is what makes you vulnerable to shingles later in life. I had them, along with mumps & both kinds of measles–because those vaccines either had not yet been invented or were not in general use.
And I had shingles earlier this year. Mild as shingles go but annoying. Will talk to the next doc I see…
I know thats why I was curious, exactly what the vaccines do since you are already immune yet have the dormant virus inside you which can reemerge during periods of stress or reduced immunity.
The vaccine “reminds” your body how to make enough of the antibody to fight it if it comes out of dormancy. Immunity to the virus that you got while you had the chicken pox doesn’t last a whole lifetime, we know now. So you get chicken pox and your body makes antibodies against it and drives it into dormancy. When the virus isn’t active, your body stops making antibodies against it, but it has cells which remember how to make it, should it come back. Over time, these memory cells die, and eventually there are not enough of them left to make sufficient antibodies if the virus wakes up.
So the vaccine triggers the memory cells, which make some antibodies against the dead virus in the vaccine. This causes the creation of more memory cells, so if your dormant virus wakes up, there are enough memory cells to make enough antibodies to fight the virus.
Same principal for all “boosters”: remind the body how to make the antibodies it learned to make years ago.
My mom, one tough lady, was screaming to die from her bout with shingles. She still has permanent chronic pain on part of her neck and can’t even wear a simple gold chain it hurts so much.
Vaccine yourself.
If I’ve never had chicken pox, but had the vaccine at a teen (and in fact, just the other month I had some bloodwork done, including a varicella titer, and I still had a decent amount of anitbodies, no booster needed,) am I at risk for shingles? Or can you only get it after getting “regular” chicken pox first?
I certainly plan to keep up to date on my vaccinations…I didn’t need a varicella booster then, but I did get DTP and MMR shots. I’m actually surprised I didn’t need the varicella booster…it’s been about 15 years since I got the shot. I feel like I should have been given one anyway, since I can’t imagine my antibodies will last too much longer.
Of those two links, one is to a N.Y. Times articles about the possibility of an increase in shingles due to use of the chickenpox vaccine (I’ve seen no figures showing a significant spike in U.S. shingles cases attributable to the vaccine). The Japanese study (accessible through a Google search; your link is dead for me) showed a 26% increase in shingles cases from 1997-2005, or less than 1 additional case per 1,000 people - a significant increase, but I wouldn’t call that “skyrocketing”.
If we’re questioning the rationale for chickenpox vaccination, we also have to take into account the many people vulnerable to initial infection with the virus, getting chickenpox and/or shingles (very young children, pregnant women, the immunosuppressed (including those on immunosuppressive drugs for cancer or other diseases). Getting vaccinated cuts their risk. And in the long term of course, dramatically lowering the number of chickenpox cases will cut way back on shingles incidence. Till then, it’s a very good idea to take advantage of the shingles vaccine, which hopefully will be improved to offer better protection.
Additional note: the cited Japanese study covered a single prefecture in Japan, not the country as a whole.
Two of my kids have had shingles around the age of 7 (they are 3.5 years apart). One had chickenpox at a toddler, the other was immunized. Both cases were quite mild, but my immunized kiddo had a milder case than my chickenpox kiddo.
I had chicken pox as a child and I hate injections but from the stories in this thread, I want that shingles vaccine now! Though I’m only 27 so I’m probably worrying too much.
See, my parents both got shingles (I think my dad has had two bouts of it, one severe, the other he saw his doc in those first 48/72 hours) and they’re in the under-60 crowd so I want the vaccine as soon as my doctor’s willing to give it to me, forget waiting til I’m 60 or even 50.
Does anyone know why you have to wait until you’re over 60 (or 50, in some places) to have the vaccine? I had a mild case of shingles earlier this year, and it was unpleasant. I don’t particularly want to have it come back, especially since it might be much worse next time. But I’m apparently not old enough to have the vaccine, and I was wondering what difference age makes, since I’m obviously old enough to get the disease…
I just started a new thread about this general question: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15412194#post15412194
I’m pretty sure though, that they make an exception if you are “high risk” and you woudl certainly seem to fit that category. 
Were you actually denied the vaccine? I fso did they know that you’d actually suffered from it?
In the event, I couldn’t get to the doctor until it was too late for the vaccine to have done any good anyway, but the doctor (who diagnosed me with shingles in the first place) did say that it was only for older people. She seemed a bit ditzy though, so if it’s not actually a hard and fast rule, I might try again with someone else.
I shall follow your new thread with interest! Thanks for starting it!