Johns Hopkins Health Alerts | Prescription Drugs | Shingles Vaccine Update

Someday, shingles may be obsolete, but for now there’s a vaccine – if you’re lucky enough to get it from your doctor.

The shingles vaccine was approved in 2006, but you may have found that it’s not offered at your doctor’s office. This isn’t unusual. Many doctors’ offices and insurance providers handle the shingles vaccine, called Zostavax, like a prescription drug. For instance, Medicare covers Zostavax under Part D, its prescription drug plan, whereas other adult vaccines like the flu or tetanus shot are covered under Medicare’s medical benefit. Coverage and copayments vary. You may have to pay full price and be reimbursed by your health plan.

Your doctor may order the shingles vaccine for you or write you a prescription to buy the shingles vaccine at a pharmacy. Some specially trained pharmacists can administer the shingles injection (for a list go to: www.merck.com/product/mav/home.html). Or you can take the shingles vaccine (or have your pharmacy deliver it) to your doctor for him or her to give you the shot. The shingles vaccine must be kept frozen until it’s used.

No vaccine is 100% effective, but in people over 60 who have not had shingles, Zostavax has been shown to reduce the risk of a shingles outbreak by half and to help prevent painful postherpetic neuralgia in people who do get shingles.

The vaccine has not been studied in people who have had shingles, and little is known about whether it works in people younger than 60. It’s also not clear how long immunity lasts. People with a weakened immune system caused by treatments like radiation or corticosteroids or who have HIV/AIDS, leukemia, lymphoma, or untreated tuberculosis should not get the vaccine.

Someday, the shingles may be obsolete. Shingles is an outbreak -- that occurs decades later -- of the same virus that causes chickenpox. Only people who have had chickenpox can develop shingles. Now that children are vaccinated against chickenpox, shingles may become a disease of the past.

Johns Hopkins Health Alerts | Prescription Drugs | Shingles Vaccine Update