Yes, You Still Need the Shingles Vaccine Even if You’ve Had Shingles
There’s so much talk about vaccines these days, it’s helpful to review which ones are the most proven and recommended, and when we should get them. One important vaccine your healthcare provider may or may not have mentioned to you yet, depending on your age and personal health profile, is the shingles vaccine.
The shingles vaccine is recommended for healthy adults age 50 or older, and also for anyone age 19 years or older who has a weakened immune system (for example, if you have recently been treated for cancer). Shingles may make you think of a red, painful rash or blisters, but symptoms can become even more serious. The most common complications of shingles include long-lasting, severe nerve pain (called postherpetic neuralgia), bacterial infections, and temporary or permanent vision or hearing loss due to shingles on the eye or ear. Shingles is also, unfortunately, very common. “We know that approximately one in every three people in the U.S. will have shingles in their lifetime. It’s therefore important for individuals who are eligible to get this vaccine, as it’s been shown to be over 90 percent effective in preventing shingles and its complications,” explains infectious-disease physician Dr. Sabrina Assoumou, MD, an associate professor at the Boston University School of Medicine. Among the small percentage who do still get shingles after vaccination, the shingles vaccine still has strong protective effects, reducing the severity of symptoms.
Doctors say that even people who’ve already had shingles should still get the shingles vaccine. “Immunity from natural infection—shingles itself—can wane over time,” says Dr. Seth Cohen, MD, medical director of infection prevention at the University of Washington Medical Center. “Having shingles once does not provide lifelong immunity; studies show that the risk of shingles recurrence can be substantial, especially in older adults or those with weakened immune systems. Vaccination provides a controlled, targeted boost to immunity designed to protect against reactivation of the virus—it’s a proactive step to protect your future health and reduce the risk of potentially debilitating complications.”
If you’re aware of the fact that shingles and chickenpox are caused by the same virus—the varicella-zoster virus—you might wonder if you still need a shingles vaccine if you had chickenpox as a child, or got the chickenpox vaccine. The answer: Yes, you definitely need a shingles vaccine if you’ve had chickenpox (interesting fact: More than 99 percent of Americans born in 1980 or before have had chickenpox, even if they don’t remember it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). That’s because the varicella-zoster virus is sneaky; after you have chickenpox, it can lie dormant in your nervous system for decades and re-emerge as shingles later in life, when your immune system isn’t as strong. In other words, having had chickenpox can actually cause you to develop shingles down the road. The shingles vaccine is highly effective at boosting the immune system to prevent this delayed reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus.
