Public DU Service announcement to older DUers - get your damn Shingles vaccinations!!!

[Mondavi]

156. CDC reports 1 in 3 people will get shingles....

http://www.cdc.gov/shingles/about/overview.html

Now 1 million cases of shingles every year in US.



In general ....

The age factor is related to older adults not coming in contact any longer with children who have natural chicken pox.
(The UK's Public Health Laboratory Service has found that adults who live with children and are exposed to chicken pox as a result receive protection against shingles[4]. In other words, exposure to active cases of chicken pox results in a boost to the immune system's ability to prevent shingles attacks.)
Before vaccine, shingles was seen only in adults, however, children are also beginning to come down with shingles as per school nurse reports since 2000.
Shingles is a much more serious condition than chickenpox.

Natural immunity is lifelong. Vaccine provides a temporary immunity, from 70% or less down to even 40%. Schools where almost all children are vaccinated for chicken pox (at least one dose) continue to see outbreaks. Now recommended that children get two doses of the vaccine. (Washington Post article reported that, in another outbreak, 75 percent of the children who came down with chickenpox had previously been vaccinated for it!)

Adult shingles has increased by 90% from 1998 to 2003. The incidence of adult shingles has increased by 90 percent from 1998 to 2003, following the release of the chickenpox vaccine for mass use. Shingles results in three times as many deaths and five times as many hospitalizations as chickenpox, and accounts for 75 percent of all medical costs associated with the varicella zoster virus.

Before the chicken pox vaccine, most children got the disease by the age of ten. In the US, about 3.7 million children would get chicken pox every year. About 50 children would die of the disease, and virtually all were immunocompromised. While the death of any child is sad, the reality is that the mortality rate in children was only 0.00135 percent. This doesn't even come close to a life-threatening epidemic.




http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/shingles-goes-epidemic-chicken-pox-vax-blame
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chicken-pox-vaccine-associated-with-shingles-epidemic-54648017.html


Herpes zoster - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_zoster‎
Wikipedia
The earliest symptoms of herpes zoster, which include headache, fever, and malaise, ..... decreased, and the occurrence of shingles among adults increased by 90%. ..... during a period of increasing varicella vaccine coverage, 1998–2003".

Herpes Zoster Rates Are Increasing, but Why? - Medscape
www.medscape.com/viewarticle/822982‎
Medscape
Apr 14, 2014 - In the United States, herpes zoster rates have increased by 39% from ... behind the increases, we do know that many cases of zoster could be ...

Examination of links between herpes zoster incidence and ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...‎
National Center for Biotechnology Information
by CM Hales - ‎2013 - ‎Cited by 3 - ‎Related articles
Dec 3, 2013 - RESULTS: 281 317 incident cases of HZ occurred. Age- and sex-standardized HZ incidence increased 39% from 10.0 per 1000 person-years ...

Shingles on the rise | Medical Journal of Australia
https://www.mja.com.au/.../shingles-rise‎
The Medical Journal of Australia
Dec 9, 2013 - The researchers found 281 317 cases of HZ, with age- and sex-standardised HZ incidence increasing by 39% from 10.0 per 1000 person-years ...