Immunization experts urge shingles vaccine.People ages 60 and older should receive a new vaccine to prevent shingles, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) consists of fifteen advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), selected by the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, to provide advice and guidance on the most effective . Also known as herpes zoster, shingles is a condition that can lead to debilitating de·bil·i·tat·ing adj. Causing a loss of strength or energy. Debilitating Weakening, or reducing the strength of. Mentioned in: Stress Reduction chronic pain. In October, the committee recommended that the new vaccine be given to all people ages 60 and older, including those who have previously suffered from shingles. "This vaccine represents an important medical breakthrough aimed at improving health in older people," said Anne Schuchat, MD, assistant U.S. surgeon general and director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases The National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), formerly known as the National Immunization Program until April, 2006, is charged with responsibility for the planning, coordination, and conduct of immunization activities in the United States. . Zostavax, the only shingles vaccine available, was studied in approximately 38,000 people ages 60 and older in the United States. Half received the vaccine, and the other half received a placebo. Study participants were followed for three years, and the vaccine reduced the occurrence of shingles by about 50 percent. The vaccine also reduced post herpetic neuralgia neuralgia (n  răl`jə, ny–), acute paroxysmal pain along a peripheral sensory nerve. , or pain persisting after an episode of
shingles, by 67 percent.
Shingles is caused by the chickenpox virus, which lies dormant in a person after she or he is exposed to the virus, reactivating many years later in life resulting in shingles. The committee's recommendation was published in the Oct. 13 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) is a weekly epidemiological digest for the United States published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 5 June 1981 issue of the MMWR published the cases of five men in what turned out to be the first report of AIDS. . |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion