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A new study has appeared in the British Medical Journal about vaccines for shingles. A licensed vaccine in Europe is more effective but has more side effects.
The British Medical Journal has published a comparative study of herpes zoster vaccines. In France, Zostavax is used from 65 years old. The study compares it to a recently approved vaccine in Europe, Shingrix, a recombinant adjuvant vaccine, apparently more effective and prescribed from age 50, but with more side effects.
What is shingles?
Shingles is a common infectious disease in the elderly due to the reactivation of the chickenpox virus, which occurs when the immune system weakens. The virus can remain latent in the body, especially in the nervous ganglia and be reactivated, it multiplies and travels, depending on the affected nerve, along the nerve fibers to the skin or mucous membranes. It is estimated that one in four French people will develop shingles during their lifetime, and that one in two French people aged 80 or over has already developed shingles. It is very painful, and is manifested by a vesicular rash.
The pains can last for months. Without complication shingles lasts about 3 to 4 weeks. But the pain can persist beyond, for about 3 months or even become chronic, so called post-zosterian neuralgia pain. Depending on its position, shingles can lead to complications in other parts of the body, for example in the eyes.
Zostavax versus Shingrix: Which vaccine to choose?
But there is a vaccine in France since June 2015, the Zostavax. It is composed of an attenuated viral strain of varicella zoster virus that stimulates the immune system to fight directly against the virus. It is very effective and consists of a single injection after 65 years. It reduces by 51% the risk of developing shingles, by 73% the most severe forms of shingles and by 67% the pain after shingles.
The British Medical Journal study compares Zostavax with a new vaccine recently approved in Europe: Shingrix. It was conducted on 2,044,504 patients. It is a recombinant adjuvant vaccine subunit. It can be proposed from 50 years old. The study shows that it is more effective but that it causes on average 30% additional side effects, including redness, swelling in the injection and pain.
This comparative study will allow doctors to decide which vaccine to prescribe against shingles. Having in hand the efficacy and risk data of comparative side effects between Zostavax and Shingrix.
Read also:
Zona: who can get vaccinated?
Shingles promotes risk of heart attack and stroke
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