Varicella zoster virus (VZV), the pathogen that causes chickenpox when first encountered in early childhood, can reawaken decades later and cause the painful skin eruption known as shingles. While rarely life-threatening, shingles — a disease with an incidence of one million new cases in the U.S. each year — can be debilitating. In order to help reduce this number, the FDA announced Thursday that Merck’s Zostavax shingles vaccine, originally approved in 2006 for use in adults 60 and over, will now be expanded to cover patients between 50 and 59. In a 22,000-patient study, Zostavax decreased the risk of shingles by 70 percent (identical to the efficacy of the vaccine in older adults) with only minimal side effects.
ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross reminds all of our readers over 50 to get this important vaccine: “Getting vaccinated will lend a great deal of protection against a potentially debilitating and painful disease.”