▷ Shingles: the underestimated health risk

11/17/2021 – 3:12 PM

GlaxoSmithKline GmbH & Co. KG

Munich (ots)

  • Age as a risk factor: People over the age of 60 are particularly at risk of severe disease and complications
  • Post-zoster neuralgia is one of the most common long-term complaints
  • Complications from shingles can affect the quality of life of those affected for months

Shingles – a term that hardly reveals the severity of the disease. In fact, herpes zoster, as shingles is known in technical terms, is a serious viral disease and can be associated with a wide range of symptoms, some of which are severe. What many do not know: Everyone who has ever had chickenpox belongs to the risk group for shingles. Because after the chickenpox disease subsides, usually in childhood, the pathogen, the varicella-zoster virus, remains in the body for life. Even many years and decades later, it can be reactivated and appear as shingles. This happens, for example, when the immune system is weakened due to age, illness or stress and the virus can no longer contain it. Over 95 percent of people over 60 years of age carry the virus mostly unnoticed for a long time, but the likelihood of falling ill is relatively high: one in three will develop shingles in the course of their life.1 In the case of an illness, the vast majority of those affected suffer from severe, often severe described as stabbing and burning, nerve pain. Even after the disease has subsided, not everyone can breathe a sigh of relief; every third person with the disease suffers complications and has to struggle with long-term consequences.2 This is why the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) recommends vaccination against shingles as the standard vaccination for people aged 60 and over; it advises people with an underlying disease even from the age of 50.

Complications and long-term consequences can make active everyday life impossible

Shingles is usually over after a few weeks, but in 30% of cases patients suffer complications that can significantly reduce their quality of life over a long period of time. One of the most common complications is post-zoster neuralgia, which plagues those affected with severe nerve pain. In the worst case this lasts for months and in severe cases for life and can make an active everyday life largely impossible. The central nervous system, skin, ears or eyes can also be affected. Inflammation of the brain or spinal cord as well as an increased risk of heart attack and stroke in the months after the illness are known to be further complications. In the case of shingles in the head area, visual disturbances up to loss of vision or facial paralysis can occur. Shingles is a serious but avoidable health risk, especially for people in the second half of life. A shingles vaccination can protect against illness and complications. According to the current recommendation of the STIKO, there is no need for vaccination intervals between a Covid-19 vaccination and other dead vaccines. Overall, it shows that the pandemic has permanently changed our awareness of our own health. A global study commissioned by GSK showed that 63% of respondents in Germany want to keep their vaccination status up-to-date in the future

In order to be able to live an active everyday life in old age, it is worth asking your general practitioner about the recommended standard vaccinations the next time you visit the practice.

About shingles

Shingles disguises itself as a skin disease, but it is an infectious disease that is triggered by the reactivation of the chickenpox pathogen. More than 95 percent of people aged 60 and over have already had chickenpox and are therefore carrying the virus. One in three people will develop shingles at some point in their life.1 Neither a healthy lifestyle nor measures such as the AHA-L rules can change that. On the one hand, the immune system decreases with age, which makes reactivation more likely. On the other hand, those affected do not become infected, but rather have the pathogen in their body. When the virus is reactivated, the previously inactive pathogens migrate from the nerve nodes along the nerve fibers to their ends on the surface of the skin. There the characteristic vesicles develop as a reaction, which are distributed in the form of a belt or band on the body. Often only one half of the body is affected. Symptoms are, for example, fatigue, exhaustion, skin rash and severe burning to stabbing nerve pain. In particular, the sometimes extremely pronounced pain can persist even after the rash has subsided if there are complications. One in three people struggles with complications and long-term effects.2 Sometimes this takes several months, in other cases the pain can last a lifetime. In addition, shingles can lead to visual disturbances, complete vision and hearing loss and, in rare cases, strokes.

You can find more information at: www.impfen.de/guertelrose

If you are interested, we will be happy to help you establish contact with those affected, patient organizations or experts for interviews and background discussions.

1 Wutzler et al. 2001; Vaccine 20: 121-124.

2 Harpaz R et al. MMWR Recomm Rep 2008; 57: 1-40.

3 GSK Global Vaccination Study 2021, 40 – 41.

Press contact:

Nicole Engelstädter
from Kuhlen Kommunikation GmbH
Widenmayerstr. 27
80538 Munich
Phone: +49 89 9545956-19
Email: [email protected]

Pia Clary
Head of corporate communications
Corporate & Government Affairs
Phone: +49 152 53239052
Email: [email protected]

Original content from: GlaxoSmithKline GmbH & Co. KG, transmitted by news aktuell

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