The good news is that it’s very rare to get shingles more than once. And that there are pain centers that recognize and treat postherpetic neuralgia- it can be so painful. Some people get a recurrent HSV I or II outbreak in a place you wouldn’t think of, like the back of the neck or the chest, and think they have recurrent shingles, but they don’t.
And if you’ve had the vaccine, which is a live virus vaccine, you also have it in your system for life. It can reactivate as shingles in the same way the wild virus can.
The increase in shingles, esp. among younger populations, was predicted as a side-effect of the mass vaccination of children with the varicella vaccine long BEFORE it was done in the U.S. One study predicted an “epidemic” of shingles (which, ftr, carries about 4 times the rate of hospitlization and more than double the death rate of chicken pox), affecting a majority of adults of working age in vaccinated populations and lasting an estimated 50 years.
:eek:
CHILDREN are getting shingles now, in unprecedented numbers. This condition used to be almost entirely confined to seniors and those with impaired immune function…now it is increasingly common among KIDS, teens, and younger adults.
Periodic exposure to chicken pox virus in the wild serves to boost natural immunity and supress re-activation of the virus as shingles. As such exposures become increasingly rare due to mass vaccination, older individuals are losing their immunity more rapidly.
The response? Let the company which sold us the CP vaccine that CAUSED all this shit to sell us ANOTHER (just a stronger dose of the orignial) to help prevent/mitigate the shingles epidemic their first product CAUSED. Brilliant, no? :smack:
Just saying. I haven’t had it yet, but then I 1. had CP at age 6, 2. worked with young kids for 15 yrs and was exposed to it many times every spring. Any day now, my natural immunity will be waning. :mad:
FTR, shingles IS contagious…the blisters can transmit the virus to others in the form of “chicken pox”…if you are immune already to CP, take every chance you get to boost your immunity by rubbing on the blisters of shingles sufferers. Just kidding. Sort of.
I just got my 84.5-year-old mom the shingles vaccine. Fortunately for her it only cost $43 at Walgreen’s. She has a PPO and Medicare. The regular price is over $200.
It will be worth it not to have her suffer the agony of shingles.
Whoops, sorry I went and posted my own shingles thread. I didn’t see this one first.
Sounds like my brother got off lightly- basic chicken pox is more virulent the older you get it, is it the same with shingles?
chicken pox was bad enough when I had it at age 14. I would hate to think what it would do now.
The horror stories I’ve heard about shingles involved people aged 60 and over: terrible pain, vision problems with the possibility of blindness, and a long recovery period.
I just read a report about a new study which says that the chances of getting shingles more than once are about the same as getting it once. It’s just the one study, though, so far.