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Comment by semidetached

2 years ago

At my annual mandatory physical yesterday my doctor told me that there's a new shingles vaccine that's around 90% effective as opposed to the 60-70% effectiveness of the previous vaccine. It's a two-shot vaccine as opposed to the single shot for the old one. I turned it down, but will probably ask for it now. I got the previous vaccine a few years ago, and then got shingles a few months later, although it was a fairly mild case and I assume that the vaccination probably had a positive effect on that outcome. The funny thing is that I recognized the incident as shingles, and called for an appointment immediately and informed them of my suspicion. At my appointment two days later the doctor prescribed some anti-viral pills and said they were best started immediately after recognizing the infection. I started laughing, as did he.

Shingrix is the "new" one but it's been on the market for several years.

The shingles vaccine that I got 4 years ago was a two-shot vaccine. Is this another new(er) vaccine?

  • No. Shingrix is the most recent shingles vaccine, AFAICT. It requires two injections for folks age 50+ or with weakened immune systems. Zostavax required one, but was withdrawn from the US market in 2020.

Is there any benefit to getting the vaccine after you've already gotten shingles?

  • Yes, shingles is reactivation of latent herpes zoster (chickenpox) usually acquired in childhood. The vaccine prevents these reactivations You can have shingles multiple times, and some people are more prone to recurrences.