Never had chickenpox. Should I get shingles vaccine? Chicken / Egg (sinus, pain)
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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.
Last edited by terracore; 11-07-2020 at 05:51 PM..
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.
I'm glad your doctor checked to see if you did have chicken pox or not.
It's really hard to say. I never heard that Shingrix stops chicken pox too. I may have to google. I think if that's the case, that vaccine is the least of all evils.
You surely don't want chicken pox as an adult. I had not heard that the vaccine could cause shingles in kids that were vaccinated. It was way too new in the 90's when my daughter was little, there was no way I was giving it to her. Even without having the internet, I questioned vaccines because at one point, I realized she was getting more vaccines then my son who's 8 years older. Back then I was worried about side effects they didn't know about such as making a kid sterile. She ended up getting them not long after. Since she has health and immune issues like me, I can see her getting shingles younger then I did at 51. I'll have to mention it to her even though she's 27. Maybe her doctor can write her a scrip in the next few years since people are getting shingles younger. In one thread, someone 28 had it.
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.
So should I get the chickenpox vaccine or the shingles vaccine?
For most healthy people, if you’re between 30 and 50 years old, there’s no need for either vaccine, Orrange said. There are some exceptions, including health care workers, pregnant women, teachers and those who are HIV-positive. If you’re an adult who hasn’t received the vaccine or you think you’ve never been exposed to chickenpox, you can ask your primary care doctor to run a blood test called varicella titers. It shows your level of chickenpox immunity.
But if you’re 50 or older, you can and should get the new shingles vaccine, Shingrix, whether or not you remember getting chickenpox in childhood. It’s given as a shot in two doses, two to six months apart.
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.
I find this very interesting topic
My son had the chickenpox which were just like three dots on his neck and if that hadn’t been rampant in his kindergarten class we would’ve probably missed it. It surprised me when he came down with the shingles at the ripe old age of 30
My daughter who always gets the weirdo disease symptoms had the chickenpox internal in her mouth and throat.No sign externally at all. Hers showed up about a week after her brother and again if the whole school hadn’t had it we probably never would’ve realized it was chickenpox
As far as myself, My mother Who is a nurse was never able to tell me whether or not I have had the chickenpox.When my kids both came down with it I had asked their doctor and my doctor what my chances were and they both responded that I most likely had them, especially since I work closely with the public.
I have also been wondering whether or not to get the shingles vaccination,for The same reason as the original poster.
My brother who I knew had gotten the chickenpox when we were younger came down with shingles a couple years ago in his private area,and suffered greatly for over a year,with much pain and side affects.
He really believes strongly that everyone needs to get the vaccination.
You would never want to get shingles so I think you should get the Shringrix vaccine. I can't see any reason for getting a chicken pox vaccine if you are already immune and anyway chicken pox is practically nothing compared to a case of shingles but that's just my own opinion.
I had chicken pox as an adult, even though I was exposed to it as a child and again babysitting in my teens.
It was one of the worst illnesses I have ever had. I got it in the first week of January and ended up using all my sick leave and vacation time (two weeks) recovering from it. I was a very healthy young woman when I got it and I started on Acyclovir within hours of the appearance of the rash. Despite that, it was pretty awful. After I recovered, I was left vulnerable to every cold and virus that circulated for several months. Things that I could normally shake off turned to bronchitis or ear and sinus infections and I had to work through them. My doctor told me that period of vulnerability was typical of an adult who had had chicken pox.
They came out with the vaccine a year after I had it!
We are in a covid pandemic. Save your immune response for that. Sounds like you may have some antigen-specific T cell immunity going on that the titer test cannot detect. You could actually interfere with that by getting the vaccine.
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