Chickenpox Nostalgia Is Real—And Really Dangerous

[pnwmom]

36. People who receive the chicken pox vaccine may still be susceptible to getting shingles.

The chicken pox vaccine might cause shingles years later, just as an infection does. The jury is still out on that. So no one should assume they'll never need the shingles vaccine, on the basis that they had the chicken pox vaccine.

http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Will-chicken-pox-vaccine-stop-shingles-4254236.php

Dr. Ann Arvin, professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases at Stanford, says doctors aren't yet sure whether this weakened virus will produce shingles immunity, too, or whether it is strong enough to cause shingles years later. In the meantime, she offers advice to adults over 50 who fear shingles' wrath: Get the shingles vaccine. Zostavax, which is also created from a weakened form of varicella, boosts adults' ability to fight the existing virus if it reactivates. The FDA approved the vaccine for people 50 and over in 2011, after a study of 22,000 people showed that people who had the vaccine were 70 percent less likely to get shingles within a year than people who received a placebo. The vaccine's protection lasts at least six years, and research is under way to determine if it lasts longer.