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I've been asking this question for over ten years. Most doctors have told me they don't know, the others split their opinion equally both ways.
I never had the chickenpox. Both my parents have clear memories of me getting exposed but never getting sick. A little over 10 years ago I had blood drawn and a titre test ran that confirmed no chicken pox immunity.
The chickenpox vaccine wasn't developed until I was an adult, so I never received it.
Square One: Since I've never had chickenpox, I can't get shingles. If I get the chicken pox vaccine, I could potentially get shingles because it's a live vaccine. The vaccine isn't old enough to know the rates of shingles in older people who got the vaccine as children, but some children who get the chickenpox vaccine get shingles. So there is a pathway from the chickenpox vaccine to getting shingles, even if the chickenpox vaccine is effective at preventing shingles in many people.
The older shingles vaccine (Zostavax) is a 19x stronger version of the modified live chickenpox vaccine. Back to square one. The preventative could cause the disease in my case.
The new shingles vaccine, Shingrix, uses a dead virus component, and is more effective than Zostavax. I've read a few articles that suggest that it "should" also confer immunity to chickenpox, but because there is already a safe and effective chickenpox vaccine, the theory will never be tested. I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that it would remove a profit-generating vaccine from the big pharma lineup, if a single vaccine could be used instead of two.
So my options:
1) Do nothing. I'll never get shingles. But I could get chickenpox, which would open me up to shingles later.
2) Get a chickenpox vaccine. Risk of getting chickenpox will almost be gone, but a risk of shingles is introduced. And I'll need to get the Shingrix vaccine to prevent shingles.
3) Get Shingrix vaccine only. I'll be immunized against a symptom I can't currently get, but it "may" give me chickenpox immunity without risk of getting chickenpox or shingles.
4) Do something else I haven't thought of.
You can take Shingrix whether or not you have had chickenpox, so that is the route I would suggest.
I've been asking this question for over ten years. Most doctors have told me they don't know, the others split their opinion equally both ways.
I never had the chickenpox. Both my parents have clear memories of me getting exposed but never getting sick. A little over 10 years ago I had blood drawn and a titre test ran that confirmed no chicken pox immunity.
The chickenpox vaccine wasn't developed until I was an adult, so I never received it.
Square One: Since I've never had chickenpox, I can't get shingles. If I get the chicken pox vaccine, I could potentially get shingles because it's a live vaccine. The vaccine isn't old enough to know the rates of shingles in older people who got the vaccine as children, but some children who get the chickenpox vaccine get shingles. So there is a pathway from the chickenpox vaccine to getting shingles, even if the chickenpox vaccine is effective at preventing shingles in many people.
The older shingles vaccine (Zostavax) is a 19x stronger version of the modified live chickenpox vaccine. Back to square one. The preventative could cause the disease in my case.
The new shingles vaccine, Shingrix, uses a dead virus component, and is more effective than Zostavax. I've read a few articles that suggest that it "should" also confer immunity to chickenpox, but because there is already a safe and effective chickenpox vaccine, the theory will never be tested. I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that it would remove a profit-generating vaccine from the big pharma lineup, if a single vaccine could be used instead of two.
So my options:
1) Do nothing. I'll never get shingles. But I could get chickenpox, which would open me up to shingles later.
2) Get a chickenpox vaccine. Risk of getting chickenpox will almost be gone, but a risk of shingles is introduced. And I'll need to get the Shingrix vaccine to prevent shingles.
3) Get Shingrix vaccine only. I'll be immunized against a symptom I can't currently get, but it "may" give me chickenpox immunity without risk of getting chickenpox or shingles.
4) Do something else I haven't thought of.
If you want to get a vaccine it makes much more sense to get the chickenpox one because you are at no risk of getting shingles since you’ve never had chicken pox. Your odds of catching chicken pox are very low. Only you can decide what to do but I see no reason at all for the shingles vaccine considering your risk of getting shingles without ever having chicken pox is zero.
you know i have had chicken pox twice in my life yes twice once at 7 and then again at 14 . this is very rare to get them twice and it seems I am a test case whenever I tell a dr that . I also had problems from a colonoscopy yeah dig that noise . I told you I am a test case to every dr who sees me . My genetic makeup is as such weird things happen when i catch something and i get the deer in headlights look from the dr and the next thing out of their mouth is let me get my medical index and see if this is possible , well yeah it is possible because im sitting in front of you . I would say just take your drs advice and see what they say . But since you have never had chicken pox you might not be at risk for the shingles . Good luck whatever you decide .
The chicken pox vaccine is a live vaccine. That means - if you get it, you can now get shingles - something which you couldn't have gotten before you got the chicken pox vaccine.
So I think your best bet would be to get the Shingrix vaccine, which gives you BOTH the chicken pox vaccine AND the shingles vaccine, with (theoretically) life-long immunity with no booster needed.
Get the varicella vaccine-- it prevents getting chicken pox and also reduces the risk of later shingles. Chicken pox is worse the older you are when you get it.
The shingles vaccine doesn't prevent chicken pox. You can't get shingles unless you get chicken pox first. With a history of earlier disease questionable, assume you didn't have it.
Get the varicella vaccine-- it prevents getting chicken pox and also reduces the risk of later shingles. Chicken pox is worse the older you are when you get it.
The shingles vaccine doesn't prevent chicken pox. You can't get shingles unless you get chicken pox first. With a history of earlier disease questionable, assume you didn't have it.
It is not known whether Shingrix will prevent chickenpox or not because no studies have been done and it is unlikely that it will be tested. The live virus varicella vaccine is very effective with a low risk of vaccine derived shingles and is much less expensive than one based on the Shingrix technology would be.
"But could GlaxoSmithKline’s shingles vaccine work to prevent chicken pox as well? 'We don’t know that, and I’m not sure if we ever will,' says Anne Gershon, a pediatric-disease specialist at Columbia University. (Gershon has received research funding from Merck and consulted for GlaxoSmithKline.) We might never know because someone would have to test it—and given that a safe, effective chicken-pox vaccine already exists, it’s unlikely anyone will ever take the risk. A GlaxoSmithKline spokesperson confirmed the company has no plans to test its vaccine for chicken pox.
Conversely, the chicken-pox vaccine does seem to offer some protection against later occurrences of shingles. The weakened varicella zoster virus strain in vaccines also lurks dormant in neurons, but it does not reawaken so easily. Kids who got chicken-pox vaccines are less likely to later get shingles than kids who naturally caught chicken pox."
It is not known whether Shingrix will prevent chickenpox or not because no studies have been done and it is unlikely that it will be tested. The live virus varicella vaccine is very effective with a low risk of vaccine derived shingles and is much less expensive than one based on the Shingrix technology would be.
"But could GlaxoSmithKline’s shingles vaccine work to prevent chicken pox as well? 'We don’t know that, and I’m not sure if we ever will,' says Anne Gershon, a pediatric-disease specialist at Columbia University. (Gershon has received research funding from Merck and consulted for GlaxoSmithKline.) We might never know because someone would have to test it—and given that a safe, effective chicken-pox vaccine already exists, it’s unlikely anyone will ever take the risk. A GlaxoSmithKline spokesperson confirmed the company has no plans to test its vaccine for chicken pox.
Conversely, the chicken-pox vaccine does seem to offer some protection against later occurrences of shingles. The weakened varicella zoster virus strain in vaccines also lurks dormant in neurons, but it does not reawaken so easily. Kids who got chicken-pox vaccines are less likely to later get shingles than kids who naturally caught chicken pox."
See the article below that I quoted in post #4 where they said they will not know if the people that had the chicken pox vaccine will need a booster and if it will stop them from getting shingles because the people that got it are only in their 20's now. I believe it came out about 1996
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roselvr
Since your last blood test was 10 years ago, I'd have your doctor repeat it once COVID is under control. Very hard to find information. The 1st article says if you're healthy you may not need either vaccine, it then goes to say that you've probably been exposed and to get Shingrix even after it mentioned getting the blood test to see so it's not a great article.
The 2nd does say that some kids that got the chicken pox vaccine, did get shingles but it wasn't as bad of a case.
Approximately 38 per 100,000 children vaccinated against chickenpox developed shingles per year, compared with 170 per 100,000 unvaccinated children, researchers found. Furthermore, shingles infection rates were lower in children who received both recommended doses of the chickenpox vaccine compared with those who only got the first dose.
About 91 percent of U.S. children are vaccinated against chickenpox, according to the most recent National Immunization Survey data, but that does not necessarily mean they cannot get shingles. The chickenpox vaccine is made with the live attenuated (weakened) varicella virus, so “not surprisingly, it can also become latent after vaccination,” explains Anne A. Gershon, a professor of pediatric infectious disease at Columbia University. “The virus has been altered so the vaccine rarely causes symptoms, but once you’ve been immunized and after the natural infection, you carry the virus in your neurons for the rest of your life,” says Gershon, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new study, which was published in June in Pediatrics, and who was not involved in the work.
Previous research with small groups found conflicting results regarding shingles rates in children vaccinated against chickenpox, with lower rates in older children but higher rates in toddlers. In the new study, researchers analyzed the medical records of nearly 6.4 million children (ranging from newborns to 17-year-olds) who received care at six health care organizations in the West, Northwest and Midwest from 2003 to 2014. They looked at records from the child’s birth or entry into the health system up until age 18 (or leaving the system), so any shingles infections after age 18 were not included. Half the children were vaccinated for at least part of the full study period; the other half were not.
The authors found that one dose of vaccine reduced shingles infection by 78 percent—except in young toddlers. Shingles rates were significantly higher in vaccinated one-year-olds than unvaccinated ones, although this increased risk for vaccinated children vanished by age two. The authors suspect the higher risk in toddlers “could be related to the developing immune system in very young children,” says lead study author Sheila Weinmann, a senior investigator at the Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Northwest in Portland, Oregon.
But it is not yet clear if children vaccinated against chickenpox will need a shingles vaccine in older adulthood. “We need to continue to follow a cohort of children who have been vaccinated and see what happens,” Gershon says, although she expects shingles will be less of a problem for them. There are not much data on adult shingles rates in the study group yet because the CDC first recommended the vaccine in 1996, so the first generation to receive it is currently in their early 20s. Shingles becomes much more common after age 50.
See the article below that I quoted in post #4 where they said they will not know if the people that had the chicken pox vaccine will need a booster and if it will stop them from getting shingles because the people that got it are only in their 20's now. I believe it came out about 1996
My post was directed at prevention of chickenpox by Shingrix, not prevention of shingles by the chickenpox vaccine.
Duration of protection from live virus vaccines tends to be enduring, and antibodies to chickenpox have been shown to persist for twenty years. At this point there is no recommendation for a booster.
My link did say the same as yours, that the risk of shingles after the chickenpox vaccine is lower than after the infection.
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