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Zorba Paster: The Shingles Vaccine Can Provide Protection

A Simple Shot Might Save You From A Lifetime Of Pain

By
Partha S. Sahana (CC-BY)  

Dear Doc: I’m confused. I heard you say on the radio that the shingles vaccine only lasts for five years. I called my doctor and then my pharmacist, who said you were dead wrong. They said the vaccine is only given one time, and it’s a lifetime dose with no need to repeat it. I think you should clear up that mistake. – M.J.

Dear M.J.: I don’t think I said exactly that on the air, but if I did then I stand corrected — and what I was talking about was immunity and how it wanes over time.

First off, I am a big believer in immunizations. I wasn’t always that way. One of my mentors, Bob Mendelsohn — an influence on me because he was a gadfly who questioned the “medical establishment”t — thought nearly all immunizations were bad. But Bob was wrong. Immunizations are good. In fact, they are great.

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There were more side effects from earlier vaccines — tetanus and the older vaccine for pertussis, or whooping cough, come to mind as commonly causing uncomfortable fevers.

But let’s stack that up against one of the vaccine success stories in my lifetime, the Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b), which precipitously dropped the rate of childhood meningitis.

Think about that, parents. Would you risk a lifetime of potential disability and the possible death of your child because you’re worried about fever for 24 hours? And the bunk about these vaccines causing autism is, as I’ve said time and time again, medical quackery. Quack, quack, quack.

But that quackery turns off a lot of people to adult vaccines such as pneumonia, tetanus, pertussis and shingles. If you’ve ever known anyone with shingles, you know it’s not a walk in the park.

The shingles vaccine is far from perfect — it’s only 50 percent effective — but it has the extra benefit of reducing the risk of post-herpetic neuralgia, constant pain from shingles that can last years, by 70 percent.

What I think my dear reader heard was the fact this immunity drops further as you age.

At 70, the protection drops to about 38 percent. But, hey, 38 percent protection is better than no protection at all.

My spin: If you’re an anti-immunization adult, think again. A simple shot just might save you from a lifetime of pain.

Stay well.