Shingles vaccine for older people
02 February 2010
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), an independent expert advisory committee set up to advise the Secretaries of State for Health, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on matters relating to communicable diseases, preventable and potentially preventable through immunisation, has recommended that people aged between 70 and 79 be offered protection against shingles and post-herpetic neuralgia.
This announcement has been welcomed by David Manion, Chief Executive of Age Concern and Help the Aged in Scotland, who says: "The introduction of a vaccine to prevent shingles will see for the first time something that will significantly reduce shingles-related pain and post-herpetic neuralgia in older people. This has to be welcomed as it has the potential to substantially improve their quality of life and we look forward to seeing its imminent availability in Scotland."
The main epidemiological feature of post-herpetic neuralgia is its striking relationship to ageing and although the condition improves over time in many elderly patients, an unfortunate subset experience debilitating pain that can last for years. They are subjected to constant and/or intermittent spontaneous pain and stimulus-evoked pain which results in exhaustion, sleep disruption, anorexia, depression, social withdrawal, impaired activities of daily living and a acute decline in their quality of life.
In a short statement endorsing the vaccination, the JCVI said it had: "...reviewed medical, epidemiological, and economic evidence as well as vaccine safety and efficacy data relevant to a herpes zoster (shingles) vaccination programme. Based on the evidence, the committee recommended that a universal herpes zoster vaccination programme for adults aged 70 up to and including 79 years should be introduced provided that a licensed vaccine is available at a cost-effective price. The age range was influenced by data on the burden of disease and the cost-effectiveness of, and the duration of protection conferred by, vaccination..."
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