FRIDAY, May 16 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that people over 60 years old receive a single dose of the shingles, or herpes zoster, vaccine, even if they have already had shingles.
The recommendation is an update of a provisional recommendation made in 2006, after the zoster vaccine Zostavax was licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and recommended by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The recommendation was published online May 15 in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Recommendations and Reports.
The vaccine reduces the occurrence of shingles by about 50 percent in people aged 60 years or older, the CDC notes, and the vaccine is recommended for all those who have no contraindications, including those with a previous episode of zoster or who have chronic medical conditions. It is recommended that the vaccine be offered at first clinical encounter and administered as a single 0.65 mL dose subcutaneously in the deltoid region of the arm.
According to Rafael Harpaz, M.D., and colleagues from the Division of Viral Diseases at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, "Prevention of zoster and its sequelae is particularly important among the oldest persons because they experience the highest incidence of zoster and [postherpetic neuralgia (PHN)], they might be least able to seek medical attention for zoster and PHN and to request treatment of ongoing pain, they might be least able to tolerate the medications and procedures commonly used to treat PHN, they might have the least reserve to tolerate zoster and its complications, and they are most likely to suffer social and psychological consequences from PHN."
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