If you’re over 50 please pay attention!

We have a new shingles vaccine, and health and federal officials are recommending it over the older vaccine. Not only is it much more effective, you can also get it at a younger age (50+ years) than the older vaccine–Zostavax (60+ years).

Our new vaccine, Shingrix, is 96.6% effective in adults 50-59 years, while our older vaccine, Zostavax, is only 70% effective in adults 60-69 years.

And WOW… the effectiveness of Shingrix at age 70+ is 91.3% vs 38% for Zostavax (which is given at an older age, also). This research shows that Shingrix offers much longer lasting protection than Zoatavax, whose protection is shown to wane after the first year.

If given the choice choose Shingrix.

And if you’ve already had the Zostavax vaccine the CDC recommends you go get the Shingrix vaccine to make sure you are as fully covered as can be.

Protect yourself from shingles!

You can find all this and more here:

Dooling KL, Guo A, Patel M, et al. Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for Use of Herpes Zoster Vaccines. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2018;67:103–108. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6703a5