Even if you haven't had chickenpox, you need to get this vaccination.
At a certain point, you stop getting a
reward lollipop for getting a shot at the doctor’s office. And
considering the fact that getting shots as an adult is an at-will
practice, a far cry from the compulsory vaccinations of grade school’s
past, one would think that at least a “good job” sticker is due.
Incentives aside, staying up-to-date on your shots remains one of the
easiest ways to protect yourself from illness.
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According to a Centers for Disease Control
(CDC) advisory committee, people over the age of 50 should add the
shingles vaccination Shingrix to their health to-do list ASAP, which
became available on the pharmaceutical market in November. It’s logical
advice to listen to— approximately one in three people in the U.S. will
develop the infection at some point.
Symptoms for shingles include “pain,
burning, numbness or tingling, sensitivity to touch, a red rash that
begins a few days after the pain, fluid-filled blisters that break open
and crust over, and itching,” according to the Mayo Clinic. (Shingles can be dangerous—take it from people who experienced the infection firsthand.)
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The shingles infection, also known as
herpes zoster, is caused by the presence of the varicella-zoster virus,
commonly known as chickenpox. Studies have shown
that more than 99 percent of people over the age of 40 in the U.S. have
contracted chickenpox in their life. Doctors advise that even if you
don’t remember having chickenpox as a child, you should still get the
Shingrix vaccination.
And Shingrix packs quite an
impressive punch, having an efficacy rate of 85 percent over three
years. By comparison, the last market standard shingles vaccine was
Zostavax, which only led to a 51 percent reduction in the development of
Shingles. The two-dose Shingrix vaccination runs about $280 and is
covered by most insurance companies. (Someday, shots may be a thing of
the past, thanks to this new vaccination innovation.)
